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THE QUEST OF 
EL DORADO 



BOOKS BY J. A. ZAHM 

(H. J. MOZANS) 

THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA'S 
SOUTHLAND 

UP THE ORINOCO AND DOWN 
THE MAGDALEN A 

ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN 
THE AMAZON 

WOMAN IN SCIENCE 

GREAT INSPIRERS 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 



THE QUEST OF 
EL DORADO 

THE MOST ROMANTIC EPISODE IN THE 
HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICAN CONQUEST 



BY 

THE REVEREND J: A. ZAHM, C. S.C, Ph.D. 
(H. J. MOZANS) 

MEMBER OF LA SOCIETE FRANgAISE DE PHYSIQUE, LA SOCIETA DANTESCA 
ITALIANA, THE ARCADIA OF ROME, AND OTHER LEARNED SOCIETIES 



'Where can it be — this land of El Dorado?" 
'Over the mountains of the moon, 
Down the Valley of the Shadow.'* 

POE. 




ILLUSTRATED 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK LONDON 

1917 









Copyright, 1917, by 
D, APPLETON AND COMPANY 



Printed in the United States of America 

OCT -3 1317 



©Ci.A476370 



TO 
MY CHERISHED FRIENDS 

THE GRADUATES OF HOLY CROSS COLLEGE 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



"There are epochs in which the reason is be- 
wildered by the contemplation of new and un- 
usual objects. And even the most clear-sighted 
man, when exposed to a continuous series of vio- 
lent impressions, ceases to analyze them and de- 
scends to the level of common intelligences which 
exaggerate and marvel at everything. To com- 
"^^ly with the precepts of the sage nil admirari, one 
must be in the full exercise of his faculties and 
have acquired a certain dominion over his senses 
which are always prone to bewitch and deceive 
him. How far were the Conquistadores of Ameri- 
ca from this state of intellectual calm? For them 
everything was matter for surprise. The spec- 
tacle of a new world, new peoples, new customs, 
and, more than all else, those inexhaustible foun- 
tains of riches which gushed forth everywhere 
with greater rapidity than their desire to possess 
them, maintained them in a sweet and perpetual 
ecstasy. Without taking opium, like the Mussul- 
mans, they experienced the same sensations from 
which they could not free themselves without great 
effort." Pedro de Angelis, in "Coleccion de 
Ohras y Document os Relativos a la Historia An- 
tigua y Moderna de las Promncias del Rio de la 
Plata." Tom. I, p. V. 



PREFACE 

This little volume is made up almost entirely of 
a series of articles which I wrote ^ in 1912 for 
the "Pan-American Bulletin." Since then so 
great has been the interest excited in the subject 
discussed, especially in the United States and 
South America, that I have frequently been urged 
to republish the articles in book-form. They now 
appear with a few changes and additions and will, 
I trust, be found an acceptable contribution, brief 
though it is, on what is undoubtedly the most 
thrilling and romantic episode in the entire range 
of South American history. Only one other epi- 
sode at all approaches it in fascinating interest 
and that relates to those countless expeditions 
which, as I have written in my recent work 
"Through South America's Southland," "started 
almost simultaneously from Buenos Aires, from 
Cordoba, from Valdivia, from Chiloe, all of them 
with the knowledge of the King of Spain, the 
Viceroy of Peru, and the governors of Chile and 
Rio de la Plata — expeditions which during nearly 
* Under the pseudonym of J. A. Manso. 



viii PREFACE 



two and a half centuries scoured the whole of the 
continent from the Pilcomayo to the Strait of Ma- 
gellan in search of that fabulous Ciudad Encan- 
tada de los Ccesares — The Enchanted City of the 
Caesars — a city which according to the sworn 
statements of those who pretended to have been 
in it, was as vast and as rich as Nineveh of old, 
and greater in area than Pekin or London — a city 
that held within its carefully fortified walls all 
the delights of Eden and all the wonders of the 
New Jerusalem." 

That the reader may better understand what 
were the views of the contemporaries of the 
Doradoists respecting the country which Belalca- 
zar, the Quesadas, von Hutten, Berrio and Ra- 
leigh traversed and the strange Aborigines with 
whom they came in contact in their quest of the 
Gilded Man and the famed city of Manoa, I have 
illustrated the narrative with a number of en- 
gravings from the early publications of De Bry, 
Colijn and Gottfriedt — engravings which the 
people of the time were led to believe were perfect 
representations of the objects portrayed. And 
following the indications, often very vague and 
unsatisfactory, of the early chroniclers, I have 
endeavored to trace the routes followed by the 
divers expeditions in the futile search of that 



PREFACE ix 

fantastic, and ever-vanisliing ignis fatuus which 
cost Spain thousands of lives and millions of 
treasure. But it will be impossible for the reader, 
guided solely by the maps and the narrative, to 
form an adequate idea of the dangers incurred 
and the difficulties surmounted by the Doradoists 
during their long wanderings over snow-clad 
mountains and through trackless and swampy 
wildernesses whose sole inhabitants were indigent, 
and frequently hostile, savages. Only those who 
have traversed the regions visited by the dauntless 
adventurers who took part in the expeditions de- 
scribed in the following pages can fully realize the 
magnitude of the task which they essayed, how 
heroically they served the Spanish Crown in the 
colonization of the vast regions which they so 
thoroughly explored and how greatly they made 
modern historians their debtors by the knowledge 
which they handed down to us respecting the man- 
ners and customs of many of the aboriginal tribes 
which long since have been extinct. 

The Author. 
On-the-IIudson, 
Riverside Drive, 
Nerv York. 
April 21, 1917, 



CONTENTS 



I. Chief Sources of Information Re- 
specting El Dorado .... 1 
II. Expedition of Sebastian de Belal- 
cazar: Conflicting Reports Re- 
garding El Dorado .... 9 
III. Expeditions of Gonzalo Pizarro and 

Francisco de Orellana ... 37 
IV. Expeditions of Fernan Perez de 

QuESADA and Philip von Hutten 51 
V. Expeditions of Pedro de Ursua, 
Martin de Proveda and Pedro de 

SiLVA 72 

VI. Expedition of Gonsalo Ximenes de 

QuESADA 87 

VII. Expeditions of Antonio de Berrio, 
THE Franciscan Lay Brothers and 

Nuflo de Chaves 110 

VIII. Expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh . 140 
IX. Persistence of Belief in El Dorado 190 
X. Reasons for the Persistent Belief 

in El Dorado 201 

XI. Modern Doradoists . •• . . . 216 



LIST or ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The Adelantado^ Sebastian de Belalcazar . . 11*^ 

Blowing gold dust on an Indian chieftain . . 15"^ 

Lake Guatavita IQ"' 

The Cacique of Guatavita on a balsa ... 23 
Route followed by Sebastian de Belalcazar in 

quest of El Dorado S3* 

Climbing the Andes in a downpour .... 39' 

Routes followed in the quest of El Dorado . 53* 

Primitive means of navigation 61 

Amazons practicing archery on their prisoners 

and preparing to roast their victims . . 67 

Routes followed in the quest of El Dorado . 77 

The Licentiate^ Gonsalo Ximines de Quesada . 91 

Juan de Castellanos 95" 

Struggling through a tropical forest in the low- 
lands ^^' 

Coat of mail and spur of Gonsalo Ximines de 

Quesada 105 

Route followed by Antonio de Berrio in quest 

of El Dorado 111^ 

Reputed scene at Manoa or Dorado . . . . 117 
xiii 



xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Indians near Manoa smelting and casting gold 123' 

Spanish soldiers put to death by the Indians . 129*^ 

Route followed by the Franciscan Lay Brothers 135' 

Sir Walter Raleigh 141' 

Route followed by Sir Walter Raleigh in quest 

of El Dorado 149' 

The burning of St. Joseph by Sir Walter Ral- 
eigh 153" 

Raleigh going up the Orinoco 157 

Houses of the Indians on the lower Orinoco . 161"^ 
Section of Raleigh's map of Guiana . . . l67 
Anomaia Indians supplying Raleigh with provi- 
sions 171"^ 

The Epwaipanomas 177 

Strange customs of the Tinitinas . . . . 181" 

Map of Guiana by Theodore de Bry . . . 187 

A reported scene on the Spanish Main . . 191" 

Spaniards seeking gold 195" 

Some of the strange animals of the New World 205^ 

Facsimile signature of Friar Gaspar Carvajal 211*^ 

Facsimile signature of Francisco de Orellana . 229*^ 



THE QUEST OF 
EL DORADO 



THE QUEST OF 
EL DORADO 

CHAPTER I 

CHIEF SOURCES OF INFORMATION RE- 
SPECTING EL DORADO 

During a year's wanderings in Andean 
lands and in the valleys of the Amazon and 
the Orinoco I was frequently reminded of 
the numerous expeditions tliat centuries ago 
went in quest of that extraordinary will-o'- 
the-wisp, usually known as El Dorado — the 
Gilded King. Whether gliding down a 
Peruvian river in a dugout or traversing in 
the saddle the llanos of Venezuela and the 
lofty tablelands of Colombia, I found my- 
self following the courses pursued by those 

1 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

intrepid adventurers who while seeking a 
phantom did so much toward exploring that 
vast region of mountain and plain which lies 
between the Equator and the Caribbean. At 
one time I was in the footsteps of Gonzalo 
Pizarro and Von Hutten, at another in the 
wake of Ursua and Orellana. Now I was 
following the course taken by Belalcazar and 
his eager band, as they hurried across the 
Cordilleras in pursuit of the Gilded King; 
anon I was pushing my way through the 
dense and tangled forests which had been 
traversed by Ximenes de Quesada and his 
sturdy men, when in search of the great and 
peerless capital of the Omaguas; and still 
again I was sailing on the tawny waters of 
the Casanare and the Orinoco, which had 
witnessed the mad race of the fleets of An- 
tonio de Berrio and Sir Walter Raleigh for 
the golden city of Manoa — for that 

Imperial El Dorado, roofed with gold ; 

Shadows to which, despite all shocks of change, 

2 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 

All onset of capricious accident, 

Men clung with yearning hope which would not die. 

And yet, strange as it may seem, little is 
known about these expeditions that at one 
time commanded such universal attention 
in both the New and the Old World, and 
which for the historian still constitute the 
most romantic episode of the conquest of 
South America. One reason for this lies in 
the fact that the most authentic and elabo- 
rate accounts of these stirring enterprises 
are to be found only in the old Spanish 
chronicles, some of which are comparatively 
rare, while others, forgotten or unknown, 
have for centuries been buried in the dusty 
archives of Spain and Peru and have only re- 
cently been given to the press. 

Among the most important of these 
chronicles are the "Noticias Historiales," of 
Fray Pedro Simon, a learned Franciscan 
friar, who wrote nearly three centuries ago, 
while some of the Conquistadores were still 

3 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

living and while the memory of the events 
connected with the first expeditions in quest 
of El Dorado was still fresh in the minds of 
many of the survivors. Of scarcely less 
value are the "Elegias de Varones Ilustres 
de Indias" and the "Historia del Nuevo 
Reino de Granada," by Juan de Castellanos, 
the poet-priest and historian of the conquest, 
who had served with distinction under Xim- 
enes de Quesada in his celebrated campaign 
against the Muiscas and who knew person- 
ally many of the most celebrated of the ad- 
venturers who had taken part in the search 
for the Gilded King on the plateau of Cun- 
dinamarca and in the sultry lowlands of the 
Meta and the Guaviare. But the "Historia 
del Nuevo Reino de Granada," of Castella- 
nos, which contains the most graphic account 
of Ximenes deQuesada's expedition in quest 
of El Dorado, was not published until 1886. 
Similarly the manuscript containing the 
authentic narrative of Ursua's expedition to 

4 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 

Omagua and Dorado by Francisco Vasquez, 
who was one of the participants in the enter- 
prise, remained in manuscript until it was 
pubHshed by the "Society of Spanish Bib- 
liophiles" less than a third of a century ago. 
What, however, is still more remarkable, is 
the fact that the original Relacion of Gon- 
zalo Pizarro's expedition in quest of the 
Gilded King — an expedition which is con- 
sidered by some as the first of that long se- 
ries of phantom-chases in which so many 
lives and so much treasure were sacrificed, 
was not published until 1894, more than 
three and a half centuries after it had been 
penned by its accomplished author, the 
Dominican, Fray Gaspar de Carvajal, who 
was at first the chaplain of Pizarro and sub- 
sequently that of Orellana, the immortal dis- 
coverer of the Amazon. 

But although these and similar invalu- 
able works bearing on the expeditions in 
quest of the Gilded King have appeared 

5 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

in Spanish, comparatively little of the in- 
formation contained in them has yet made 
its way into English. This explains the 
numerous errors that are found in what has 
hitherto been written on the subject and 
(i why many adventurers like Antonio Sedeno, 
I Diego de Ordaz, Nicolas Federmann, and 
' others of their contemporaries are classed 
among those who sought for El Dorado 
when, as a matter of fact, these treasure- 
seekers had not even heard of this mythical 
personage. To the earlier adventurers, like 
those just named, the auri sacri fames — the 
accursed thirst for gold — was indeed as 
strong a lure as it was to their successors, 
but they confined their operations chiefly to 
rifling the temples and cemeteries of the 
aborigines or to seeking a certain Casa del 
Sol — temple of the sun — that was supposed 
to exist somewhere east of the Andes, pre- 
sumably in the valley of the Meta. 

It is a pity that those who love the curi- 
6 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 

ous and romantic phases of history have 
not given more attention to the interesting 
episode of El Dorado. An exhaustive and 
authoritative work on the subject, one which 
shall embody the results of the most recent 
researches in Spain and Latin America, is 
certainly a desideratum in the history of the 
conquest and exploration of the northern 
portion of our sister continent. For the 
years devoted to the quest of the Gilded 
King were not only "years crowded with 
incident, streaked with tragedy, stained by 
crime, darkened by intrigue," but they were 
also years during which the amazing au- 
dacity, the matchless prowess, and the thrill- 
ing heroism of the Conquistadores were seen 
at their best. And the study of these years 
will show that the prime mover of the Span- 
iards in their extraordinary adventures was 
not a thirst for gold, as is so often asserted, 
but a love of glory and a sense of patriotism 
which impelled them to make sacrifices and 

7 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

to undertake enterprises before which even 
the bravest men of our degenerate age would 
recoil with horror. So marvelous, indeed, 
were their achievements that, were they not 
attested by the most unquestionable of docu- 
ments, we should be disposed to place the 
old chronicles which describe them in the 
same category as the Arthurian romances, 
and to regard the exploits of some of the 
members of the chief expeditions as no more 
deserving of credence than the glorifying 
myths of El Cid Campeador. Even today, 
as he slowly pursues his lonely course 
through the dark forests which fringe the 
Orinoco and the Amazon, or scales the pre- 
cipitous flanks of the lofty Cordilleras, the 
traveler feels the spell of romance and can 
easily dream of the gorgeous capitals and 
mighty empires, whose glamour in days gone 
by proved such an attraction to thousands of 
the most gallant and noble spirits of the 
Spanish conquest. 

8 



CHAPTER II 

EXPEDITION OF SEBASTIAN DE BELALCA- 
ZAR. CONFLICTING REPORTS REGARD- 
ING EL DORADO 

It was in 1535 that a roving Indian first 
told the Spaniards the story of the gilded 
chieftain to whom they forthwith gave the 
name El Dorado — the Gilded ^lan or King 
— a name which was subsequently applied 
not only to the gilded chief himself, but also 
to the city wherein he was supposed to reside, 
and to the province over which he bore rule, 
and to the lake on which his capital was said 
to be located. At that time Sebastian de 
Belalcazar, the lieutenant of Francisco Piz- 
arro, was in Quito, whither he had gone after 
his victorious campaign against the generals 
of Atahualpa, and here it was, according to 
Castellanos, where — 

9 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

An alien Indian, hailing from afar, 

Who in the town of Quito did abide. 

And neighbor claimed to be of Bogata, 

There having come, I know not by what way, 

Did with him speak and solemnly announce 

A country rich in emeralds and gold. 

Also, among the things which them engaged, 
A certain king he told of who, disrobed. 
Upon a lake was wont, aboard a raft. 
To make oblations, as himself had seen. 
His regal form o'erspread with fragrant oil 
On which was laid a coat of powdered gold 
From sole of foot unto his highest brow, 
Resplendent as the beaming of the sun. 

Arrivals without end, he further said, 
Were there to make rich votive offerings 
Of golden trinkets and of emeralds rare 
And divers other of their ornaments; 
And w^orthy credence these things he affirmed; 
The soldiers, light of heart and well content, 
Then dubbed him El Dorado, and the name 
By countless ways was spread throughout the 
world.^ 

^"Elejias de Varones Ilustres de Indias/' Parte 
III, Canto II, Madrid (1850). 

10 




From Herrera's "Historia de las Indlas Occidentales" 
The Adklaxtado, Sebastian Belalcazar 
The first of the Conquistadores to go in search of the Gilded Man 



EXPEDITION— DE BELALCAZAR 

According to the chronicler, Juan Rodri- 
guez Fresle, who was a son of one of the 
Conquistadores of New Granada, the lake 
on which were made these offerings of gold 
and emeralds, was Guatavita, a short dis- 
tance to the northeast of Bogota. And the 
source of his information respecting the na- 
ture of the ceremonies connected with these 
offerings was, he assures us, no less than one 
Don Juan, the cacique of Guatavita, who 
was the nephew of the chief who bore sway 
at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards 
under Ximenes de Quesada, and who was 
even then preparing himself by a six years' 
fast to succeed his uncle as cacique of Gua- 
tavita. After this long fast, which was made 
under the most trying conditions, the suc- 
cessor to the caciqueship was obliged to go 
to the Lake of Guatavita and offer sacrifice 
to the Devil, who, Fresle informs us, was re- 
garded by the aborigines as their god and 
master. After being stripped, he was 

13 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

anointed with a viscous earth, which was 
then overspread with powdered gold in such 
wise that the chief was covered with this 
metal from head to foot. He was then 
placed on a balsa provided with a great 
quantity of gold and emeralds, which he was 
to offer to his god. Arriving at the middle 
of the lake, which was surrounded by a vast 
multitude of men and women, shouting and 
playing on musical instruments of various 
kinds, he made his offering by throwing in- 
to the lake all the treasure which he had at 
his feet. After this ceremony was over, he 
returned to the shore where, amid acclama- 
tions, music and rejoicing, he was received 
as their legitimate lord and prince. 

"From this ceremony," our author con- 
tinues, "was derived that name, so cele- 
brated, of 'El Dorado,' — which has cost so 
many lives and so much treasure. It was 
in Peru that this name 'Dorado' was first 
heard. Sebastian de Belalcazar, having met 
14 




De Bry 



Blowing Gold Dust on an Indian Chieftain after His 
Body Had Been Anointed with Balsam 



EXPEDITION— DE BEL ALCAZAR 

near Quito an Indian from Bogota, who told 
him about the Gilded Man just described, 
exclaimed 'Let us go in search of that gilded 
Indian.' " " Hence the report of El Dorado 
was spread throughout Castile and the In- 
dies, and Belalcazar was moved to go in 
quest of him as he did, and hence also the 
cause of that celebrated meeting with Que- 
sada and Federmann, which constitutes one 
of the most thrilling and dramatic chapters 
in the history of the conquest of New Gra- 
nada.^ 

I am aware that certain recent writers on 
El Dorado are disposed to give slight cre- 
dence to Fresle's account of the Gilded ]Man, 
and that, following the indications of a spe- 
cious theory, they attach little, if any, more 

^ "Conquista i Descubrimiento del Niievo Reino de 
Granada de las Indias Occidentales del JNIar Oceano 
i Fundacion de la Ciudad de Santa Fe de Bogota." 
Cap. II, Bogota (1859.) 

^ See the Author's "Up the Orinoco and Down the 
Magdalena/' p. 294> et seq. New York (1909). 

17 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

value to the statements of Castellanos and 
Padre Simon, who, as a matter of fact, are 
our chief and best authorities on this inter- 
esting topic. The quotation above given 
from Juan de Castellanos they characterize 
as a mere poetical fancy. Holding such 
views, they naturally find fault with Hum- 
boldt for having spread broadcast the er- 
ror, as they regard it, concerning the con- 
nection between El Dorado and Lake Gua- 
tavita — an error, they assert, into which the 
great German savant was led by conceding 
undue authority to what the historian of 
Granada, Bishop Piedrahita, writes on the 
subject.^ Plausible as they are, however, the 

* Cf. "El Dorado, Aus der Geschichte der ersten 
Amerikanischen Endeckungs-Reisen. Separat-Aus- 
druck aus den Mittleilungen der Geographischen 
Gesellschaft in Hamburg" (1889) ; "Historia General 
de las Conquistas del Nuevo Reino de Granada," Lib. 
VI, Cap. Ill, por D. Lucas Piedrahita, Antwerp 
(1688) ; "The Gilded Man," by A. F. Bandelier, New 
York (1893); "Personal Narrative of Travels to the 
Equinoctial Regions of America during the Years 

18 




Lake Guatavita 

Showing the cut made by Sepulveda, a rich merchant of Bogota, 
who in 1562 received from Philip II a concession to drain 
the lake in order to secure the great treasures supposed to 
exist at the bottom. Quite recently an English company 
having a concession from the Colombian Government suc- 
ceeded in completely draining the lake and found the bottom 
covered with a deposit of mud about 3 meters in thickness. 
It will be necessary to carefully wash this in order to de- 
termine v>'hat treasures, if any, are contained in it. According 
to the latest report available, only a few beads. c(>ramic and 
gold objects have so far been found. The lake is almost cir- 
cular in outline, with a diameter of about 300 nu'ters. and 
was. at the time of the Conquistadores, about 50 meters in 
depth. 



EXPEDITION— DE BELALCAZAR 

reasons of these writers for rejecting the 
testimony of such veracious and conscien- 
tious chroniclers as Fresle, Padre Simon, 
Castellanos, and Piedrahita are far from 
conclusive, and most readers who will take 
the trouble to consult what these four writ- 
ers have to say on the matter in question 
will, I think, agree with Humboldt and be 
satisfied that the accounts given of El Do- 
rado by the early chroniclers named are 
founded on facts that can not be gainsaid. 
The fact that only a few years after the 
arrival of Belalcazar at Bogota, the Span- 
iards began to make efforts to secure the 
gold and precious stones which, according 
to tradition, had been cast into the sacred 
Lake of Guatavita by the Gilded King, is 
evidence that the statements of Fresle and 
other contemporary writers regarding the 
connection between this lake and El Dorado 

1799-1804," by Alexander von Humboldt and Aime 
Bonpland, Vol. Ill, Chap. XXV, Bohn edition. 

21 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

are substantially true. For more than three 
centuries many attempts were made to drain 
the lake, with a view to securing the price- 
less treasures which were supposed to be 
spread over its bottom, but the success which 
attended the efforts of those who had the 
matter in charge was only partial. There 
were never sufficient funds available to com- 
plete the work of drainage until a few years 
ago, when the attempt was again made by 
some Englishmen, who are still engaged in 
the undertaking. But a number of gold 
objects were found, among them some in- 
teresting figurines, which confirmed many 
people in the belief which they had before 
entertained regarding the existence of un- 
told amounts of gold and precious stones at 
the bottom of the lake, the oflPerings of El 
Dorado to his god before the Spanish Con- 
quest, and which convinced them of the 
accuracy of the accounts of the early chron- 
iclers regarding the ceremonies performed 
22 




The Cacique of Guatavita. Surrounded by Indian Priests, on 
A Balsa Which Conducted Him, on the Day of Oblation, 
TO THE Middle of the Lake 

This object is made of gold, weighs 262 grams, and measures 9^2 
centimeters in diameter. It was found in Lalie Siecha, some 
miles distant from Lake Guatavita, and is in the possession of 
a gentleman of Bogota. 



EXPEDITION— DE BELALCAZAR 

here centuries ago, in which the Gilded 
JNIan was the chief actor.^ 

According to Padre Gumilla the word 
"Dorado" had a different origin from that 
assigned by Fresle and Castellanos. It 
originated, declares this writer, on the Carib- 
bean Coast near Cartagena and Santa Mar- 
ta, whence it passed to Yelez and thence to 
Bogota. When the Spaniards reached the 
elevated plain of Cundinamarca, they 
learned that "El Dorado was in the pleasant 
and fertile valley of Sogamoso." On reach- 

^ Special mention should here be made of a most 
interesting find made in 1856 in Lake Siecha, a small 
body of water near Lake Guataviia. It consists of a 
small group of figures of men on a raft, all of gold, 
and weighing 268 grams, which, in the opinion of 
competent archeologists, represents El Dorado on a 
rush balsa surrounded by his priests as he proceeded 
to the center of Lake Guatavita to offer sacrifice to 
his god. See "El Dorado — Estudio Historico, Etno- 
grafico y Arqueologico de los Chibchas, Habitantes 
de la Antigua Cundinamarca," p. 11, por Dr. Liborio 
Zerda, Bogota (1883). 

25 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

ing this place they found that the priest who 
made his oblation in the great temple there 
was wont to anoint at least his hands and 
face with a certain kind of resin over which 
powdered gold was blown through a hollow 
reed or cane. From this circumstance the 
famous "Dorado" took his name.^ 

Those who reject the accounts above given 
regarding El Dorado declare that the first 
authentic information we have of him is 
contained in a letter, dated January 20, 
1543, of Gonzalo Fernando de Oviedo y 
A'^aldes to Cardinal Bembo, in Venice. This 
letter refers to the celebrated expedition of 
Gonzalo Pizarro to the land of Canela — 
cinnamon — which was on the eastern versant 
of the Cordilleras and but a few days' jour- 
ney from Quito. The ostensible object of 
the expedition, as announced by Pizarro, 

^ "Historia Natural, Civil y Geografica de las 
Naciones Situadas en las Riveras del Rio Orinoco/' 
Tom. I, Cap. XXV, 3, Barcelona (1791). 

26 



EXPEDITION— DE BELALCAZAR 

was to find the region which was reputed to 
be as rich in aromatic shrubs and trees as 
the spice islands of the Orient. If this could 
be found the fortunes of the leader and his 
companions would be assured, and Spain 
would be independent of her hated rival, 
Portugal, w^hich then had a monopoly of 
cinnamon and other precious spices. But 
the real object was not so much the discovery 
and conquest of the land of Canela' as the 
quest of a great and powerful prince who 
was called El Dorado.^ 

"When I ask, [writes Oviedo] why they 
call this prince the Gilded Cacique or King, 

^ Cinnamon is actually found in this and other 
parts of tropical America^ but it belongs to a differ- 
ent genus from that of Ceylon, which supplies the 
well-known article of commerce. 

^ Gon9alo Pi9arro, determine de yr a buscar la 
canela e a un gran principe, que llaman El Dorado, 
de la requeca del qual hay mucha fama in aquellas 
partes. "Historia General y Natural de las Indias, 
Islas Y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano," Tom. IV, 
Lib. XLIX, Cap. II, Madrid (1851). 

27 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

the Spaniards who have been in Quito or 
have come to Santo Domingo — and there 
are at present more than ten of them in this 
city — make reply that from what they hear 
respecting this from the Indians, this great 
lord or prince goes about continually cov- 
ered with gold as finely pulverized as fine 
salt. For it seemeth to him that to wear any 
other kind of apparel is less beautiful, and 
that to put on pieces or arms of gold 
stamped or fashioned by a hammer or other- 
wise is to use something plain or common, 
like that which is worn by other rich lords 
and princes when they wish ; but that to pow- 
der oneself with gold is something strange, 
unusual, and new and more costly, because 
that which one puts on in the morning is re- 
moved and washed oif in the evening and 
falls to the ground and is lost. And this he 
does every day in the year. While walking 
clothed and covered in this manner his move- 
ments are unimpeded, and the graceful pro- 
28 



EXPEDITION— DE BELALCAZAR 

portions of his person, on which he greatly 
j^rides himself, are seen in beauty unadorned. 
I would rather have the chamber besom of 
this prince than the large gold smelters in 
Peru, or in any other part of the world. 
Thus it is that the Indians say that this 
cacique, or king, is very rich and a great 
lord, and anoints himself every morning with 
a very fragrant gum or liquor and over this 
ointment he sprinkles powdered gold of the 
requisite fineness, and his entire person from 
the sole of his foot to his head remains cov- 
ered with gold, and as resplendent as a piece 
of gold polished by the hand of a great arti- 
ficer. And I believe, if this cacique uses this, 
that he must have very rich mines of a simi- 
lar quality of gold, because I have seen much 
in tierra fir me of the kind called by the Span- 
iards volador, and so fine that one could eas- 
ily do with it what is above stated." ^ 

^ "Historia General y Natural de las Indias/' Tom. 
IV, p. 183. 

29 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

From the foregoing it is seen that there 
were at the time of the arrival of the Con- 
quistadores in South America three differ- 
ent reports in circulation among the Indians 
regarding the mysterious personage whom 
the Spaniards, from the descriptions given 
of him by their informants, agreed in call- 
ing El Dorado, an abbreviation for El 
Hojnbf^e o Bey Dorado — the Gilded INIan or 
King. 

That they should have heard of him 
in different places widely separated from 
one another is not surprising when we re- 
member that the Indians of Darien and 
Costa Rica, long before Francisco Pizarro's 
advent in Peru, were aware of the wealth 
and the power of the Incas in the remote 
south. And that there should have been dif- 
ferent accounts regarding the character and 
place of abode of this marvelous savage is 
what might have been expected by one who 
knows how prone Indians are to exaggerate, 
30 



EXPEDITION— DE BELALCAZAR 

or to modify what they have heard so as to 
suit their own fancy. 

It w^as not, then, surprising that the Span- 
iards should liave been misled by these di- 
vers and alluring reports. After the suc- 
cesses achieved by their countrymen in 
jNIexico and Peru, and after the millions of 
treasure which had been found in the lands 
of the Aztecs, Chibchas, and Incas, they 
were prepared for anything. Nothing 
seemed impossible, and no tale about gilded 
men or golden palaces was so extravagant 
as to be rejected by them as false. They 
were ready to give full credence to even 
greater fictions than the Golden Fleece or 
the Apples of the Hesperides, and would 
not have been surprised to find Ophir or 
Tarshish in the valleys of the Orinoco or 
the Amazon. The spirit of adventure and 
romance dominated everyone not only in 
the Indies but in the mother country as well. 

"For all this Spanish nation [writes an old 
31 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

chronicler] is so desirous of novelties that 
what way soever thej^ bee called with a becke 
only or soft whispering voyce, to anything 
arising above water, they speedily prepare 
themselves to flie and forsake certainties, un- 
der hope of an higher degree, to follow in- 
certainties, which we may gather bj^ that 
which is past." 

It was a vague and fantastic rumor like 
this that lured Belalcazar from Quito to the 
Sabana of distant Bogota, where he met 
Quesada and Federmann/^ According to 
the Indian from whom the Spanish chieftain 
received his information, the Province of 
El Dorado was called Cundirumarca, and 
was not more than 12 days' distant from 
Quito. This distance, if the Indian's state- 
ment was true, would preclude the plain of 
Bogota as the home of the Gilded Man, for 
it was impossible to reach this place in so 
limited a time. Besides, Cundirumarca is a 

^^ See Appendix. 

32 




KoL'TE Followed by Sebastian de Belalcazar in Quest of El 
Dorado 



EXPEDITIOX— DE BELALCAZAR 

Quichua word, and could not, it is asserted, 
have been the name of a province in New 
Granada, where the language of the Incas 
was unknown. Despite, therefore, the posi- 
tive statement of Piedrahita that the motive 
of Belalcazar's expedition to the north was 
the discovery of El Dorado and the House 
of the Sun, it may be that the real reason 
was the desire on the part of Pizarro's lieu- 
tenant to cut loose from his chief and find a 
country of which he might himself become 
the adelantado. Subsequent events and the 
realization of his desire to be appointed gov- 
ernor of Popayan give color to this surmise. 
Whether, however, Belalcazar misunder- 
stood his informant regarding the loca- 
tion of the Province of Cundirumarca, or 
whether he was merely looking for a pre- 
text for escaping from Peru, where he was 
overshadowed by Pizarro, it is certain that 
the next expedition in search of El Dorado, 
by some considered the first genuine expe- 
35 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

dition in quest of the Gilded King, was 
headed for the eastern slopes of the Andes 
instead of for the northern plateau of Xew 
Granada. The country of the Gilded King, 
it was now thought, was in the vicinity of 
the "Land of Cinnamon," and preparations 
were forthwith made to add these rich lands 
to the possessions of the Spanish Crown. 



CHAPTER III 

EXPEDITIONS OF GONZALO PIZARRO AND 
FRANCISCO DE ORELLANA 

The leader of this expedition was the 
famous Conquistador, Gonzalo Pizarro, a 
half brother of the conqueror of Peru. To- 
ward the end of February, 1541, six years 
after Belalcazar had left for Xew Granada, 
Pizarro started eastward at the head of what 
was then considered a large and well- 
equipped force of men — one much larger 
than that at the disposal of Francisco Pi- 
zarro when he captured Atahualpa and 
gained possession of the great Inca em- 
pire. 

According to Zarate, he had under his 
command five hundred Spaniards, one hun- 
dred of whom were mounted, and four thou- 
37 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

sand Indians. One item of the commissarj- 
department was three thousand — Herrera 
makes the number five thousand — swine and 
llamas, which latter were called by the Span- 
iards ovejas del Peru — Peruvian sheep. 
Pizarro evidently took the Indian literally 
when he spoke of the ruler of Cundiru- 
marca as a powerful lord, and he, accord- 
ingly, started on his undertaking well 
equipped and prepared for a long and vig- 
orous campaign. 

The enterprise that was begun with such 
careful preparation and with such high 
hopes was doomed, so far as its immediate 
object was concerned, to have a disastrous 
termination, for scarcely had those taking 
part in it reached the fastnesses of the An- 
des, but a few miles distant from Quito, 
when their difficulties began. The intense 
cold and the piercing winds which they en- 
countered in crossing the formidable barrier 
of the eastern Cordillera caused untold suf- 
38 







Climbing the Andes in a Downpour 



PIZARRO AND DE ORELLANA 

fering and occasioned the death of many 
of the Indians. Then, to add to their hard- 
ships, they experienced one of those fright- 
ful earthquakes which are so frequent in 
this land of terrible volcanoes. This was 
succeeded by a torrential downpour, by 
thunder and lightning, which seemed to por- 
tend all the dire calamities that thereafter 
ensued. This deluge continued unabated 
for weeks and so saturated the soil that 
progress became almost impossible. The 
adventurers were surrounded by swollen 
streams, dangerous morasses, and by forests 
and thickets so dense that they had to hew 
a way by axes and machetes. Drenched 
with incessant rains that spoiled their food 
and equipment, rotted their garments, and, 
as the chronicler Molina expresses it, "bap- 
tized their very souls," they were soon con- 
fronted with starvation. Their live stock, 
including even their horses and dogs, had 
been consumed, and they were reduced to 
41 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

subsisting on such edible fruits and herbs as 
they could find in the forest. 

But pressed as they were by hunger and 
spent by toil so that they could scarcely 
move, these determined men of blood and 
iron still persisted in their course. They 
found the land of cinnamon, but, as they had 
set out in quest of El Dorado, they were 
loath, notwithstanding the countless diffi- 
culties which beset their path, to desist from 
their undertaking. In order to make better 
headway, Pizarro resolved to construct a 
brigantine. Under the circumstances this 
was a Herculean task, for he had neither the 
materials nor the necessary workmen. But 
nothing daunted, the much-needed craft was 
begun without delay. "For iron," Zarate 
informs us, "they used the shoes of their 
dead horses, and in lieu of pitch they availed 
themselves of a gum which was distilled by 
the trees there, and for oakum they made 
use of the old garments of the Indians or 
42 



PIZARRO AND DE ORELLANA 

the shirts of the Spaniards, which had been 
rotted by the excessive rains — each con- 
tributing what he was able." ^ This vessel, 
which was constructed under such adverse 
conditions, was remarkable not only as be- 
ing the first floated on these inland waters 
by Europeans, but also as the one that was 
soon afterward utilized in making one of 
the most notable voyages recorded in the 
annals of discovery. For it was the San 
Pedro — this was the name of the brigan- 
tine — that enabled Orellana, Pizarro's lieu- 
tenant, to discover the mighty Amazon, and 
that with the Victoria, which was built after 
the San Pedro, carried the leader and his 
intrepid companions in safety to the island 
of Cubagua, north of the coast of Vene- 
zuela. 

This is not the place to discuss what has 

^ "Historia del Descubrimiento j Conquista de la 
Provincia del Peru/' Lib. IV^ Cap. Ill, Amberes 
0555), 

43 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

been called Orellana's treason to his chief,- 
who, finding himself abandoned by his lieu- 
tenant, after he had been sent in search of 
provisions, suddenly found himself forced 
to return to Quito or starve in the wilder- 
ness with his remaining survivors. Nor shall 
I weary the reader with a recital of the hard- 
ships and sufferings of Pizarro's heroic band 
during their long and painful march home- 
ward. Frequently they faced starvation in 
its direst form, and at times they had noth- 
ing to appease the gnawings of hunger but 
the leather of their saddles and sword belts. 
Outside the scant sustenance which they 
found in an occasional Indian settlement, 

^ See the author's "Along the Andes and Down the 
Amazon/' Chap. XXIII, New York (I9II); also 
"Descubrimiento del Rio de las Amazonas segun 
Relacion hasta ahora inedita de Fr. Gaspar de Car- 
vajal, con otros documentos referentes a Francisco 
de Orellana y sus companeros/' por Jose Toribio, 
Medina, Sevilla (1894), and "La Traicion de Un 
Tiierto/' por Ximenes de la Espada en "La Illustra- 
cion Espaiiola Y Americana (1892-1894). 

44 



PIZARRO AND DE ORELLANA 

their ordinary fare consisted of such fruits, 
herbs and roots as they came across in their 
march through the tangled forest. When 
these were wanting they were forced, as 
Garcillaso de la Vega tells us, to eat toads, 
snakes, and other reptiles equally repulsive. 

At length, in June, 1542, after an ab- 
sence of about sixteen months, "the way- 
worn company reached the elevated plain of 
Quito. But how different their aspect from 
that which they had exhibited on issuing 
from the gates of the same capital, nearly 
a year and a half before, with high romantic 
hope, and in all the pride of military array." 

Zarate writes : ^ 

''The whole party from the general to the 
private soldier, was almost entirely naked, 
as, from the almost continual rains to which 
they had been exposed, and the other hard- 
ships of their journey, their clothes were all 

'" Op. cit. Lib. IV, CaiD. V. 
45 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

rotten and torn to rags, and they were re- 
duced to the necessity of covering them- 
selves w^ith the skins of beasts. Their swords 
were all without scabbards and almost de- 
stroyed with rust. Their legs and arms were 
torn and scratched by the brushwood, thorns 
and brakes through which they had traveled, 
and the whole party was so pale, lean, and 
worn out with fatigue and famine that their 
most intimate acquaintances were hardly 
able to recognize them. Among all their pri- 
vations what they felt the most insufferable 
was the want of salt, of which they had not 
been able to secure the smallest supply for 
above two hundred leagues. 

"On arriving in the kingdom of Quito, 
where everything they stood in need of was 
brought to them, they knelt down and kissed 
the ground as a mark of gratitude and satis- 
faction, and returned thanks to God for their 
preservation from so many dangers. Such 
was their eagerness for food, after so long 
46 



PIZARRO AND DE ORELLANA 

famine, that it became necessary to regulate 
their supply and onl}^ allow them to eat but 
little at a time till their stomachs became 
accustomed to digest their food." 

For courage and constancy in the midst 
of untold hardships and dangers the expedi- 
tion of Gonzalo Pizarro was truly remark- 
able. The intrepid adventurers composing 
it had to contend at every step with a gi- 
gantic and invincible enemy — rude and sav- 
age nature with all its powerful elements of 
destruction. And were it not for the results 
of the expedition, and the names of places 
recorded by historians, one would be in- 
clined to regard the story of this matchless 
achievement as a fantastic tale without foun- 
dation in fact. Indeed, when we contem- 
plate the valor and daring of Pizarro and 
his companions, their resistance to fatigue 
in unheard-of hardships, we are disposed 
to think that the men of their day were 
47 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

of a diiFerent mold from those of our own. 

During this expedition the Spaniards, 
says Gomara, "traveled four hundred 
leagues, the entire distance through a path- 
less wilderness." Of the two hundred and 
more that started on it less than one hun- 
dred returned to Quito, and among them 
there was not a single one of the four thou- 
sand Indians who had accompanied them on 
their departure.^ 

And what was the net result of this ex- 
pedition? Outside of the discovery of the 
Amazon by Orellana, which was incidental, 
it was virtually nil. The adventurers found, 
it is true, the land of cinnamon, but the trees 
bearing the precious bark were so few and 
widely separated, and so far away from 
means of transportation, that they were 
practically valueless. Beyond certain vague 

* "Historia de las Indias/' Cap. CXLIII: "No 
bolvieron cien Espaiioles de doscientos i mas que 
fueron; no bolvio Indio ninguno de quantos llevaron." 

48 



PIZARRO AND DE ORELLANA 

rumors of a rich and powerful chief living 
somewhere between the Amazon and the 
Rio Negro they could secure no information 
regarding the Gilded King and the province 
of gold that were the objects of their quest. 
And what seems passing strange is that 
Padre Carbajal, the chronicler of Orellana's 
expedition, makes no mention whatever of 
El Dorado, although he must have known 
that it was this mysterious character that 
Gonzalo Pizarro had chiefly in view when 
he left Quito for the land of Canela. Aside, 
then, from their value to geographical 
science the expeditions of both Pizarro and 
Orellana were as barren of the results sought 
as was that of Belalcazar a few years before. 
But failure on the part of these three 
gallant leaders, and the recital of the terri- 
ble sufferings and hardships which had been 
endured by those who had taken part in the 
first enterprise, did not discourage others 
or deter them from essaying to achieve suc- 
49 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

cess where their luckless predecessors had 
failed. The vague and conflicting reports 
about the rich and powerful tribe of Indians 
east of the Andes and north of the Amazon, 
called the Omaguas, were sufficient to deter- 
mine the organization and equipment of new 
expeditions without delay, the aim of all of 
which was to discover the ever-alluring and 
ever-elusive El Dorado. 



CHAPTER lY 

EXPEDITIONS OF FERNAN PEREZ DE 
QUESADA AND PHILIP VON HUTTEN 

Even before Orellana had embarked for 
Spain to seek the governorship of the region 
he had discovered, another expedition in 
search of the Gilded Man was nearing its 
termination. This was under the command 
of Fernan Perez de Quesada, who, hke so 
many others, had been captivated by the 
glowing accounts of El Dorado's riches 
given him by the soldiers of Belalcazar and 
resolved forthwith to abandon the comforts 
and luxuries, which, as governor of New 
Granada, he enjoyed during the absence in 
Spain of his brother Gonzalo, and go in pur- 
suit of a flitting phantom. This enterprise, 
counting more than two hundred and fifty 
men and having full two hundred horses, 
51 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

was begun at Tiinja, north of Bogota, in 
September, 154^5, The adventurers, after 
crossing the eastern Cordillera and reaching 
what are now known as the llanos of Colom- 
bia, advanced toward the south, w^ith the 
sierras on their right and the broad grassy 
plains of the lowlands on the left. Their 
hardships and sufferings in the wilderness 
from lack of food were appalling enough, 
but they were still more intensified by the 
incessant rains and by the frequent attacks 
of savage Indians. They eventually suc- 
ceeded in reaching the headwaters of the 
Caqueta and in penetrating even the land 
of Canela, which had but a short time pre- 
viously witnessed the homeward march of 
Gonzalo Pizarro and his helpless band. 
Quesada's expedition, like Pizarro's, lasted 
sixteen months,^ during which he lost eighty 

■^ Oviedo y Banos, in his "Kistoria de la Conqiiista 
y Poblacion de la Provincia de Venezuela," Tom. I, 
p. 152, says two years. 

^9 



DE QUE SAD A AND VON HUTTEN 

men and all his horses. And like his ill- 
starred predecessor, he had nothing to show 
for his enormous expenditure of energy and 
courage but a depleted purse. And withal, 
El Dorado was still as far away from the 
eager, expectant Spaniards as ever. 

While Quesada was cutting his way 
through the impenetrable jungles of the 
montana, another expedition was organiz- 
ing at Coro, in northwestern Venezuela, un- 
der Philip von Hutten, a relative of the 
Welsers, the rich German bankers of Augs- 
burg, who then held from the Emperor 
Charles V a large concession of land in 
Tierra Firme and who were bent on secur- 
ing a part of the vast treasures reported to 
be in the territory ceded them by the Span- 
ish monarch. Previous expeditions had been 
sent out by representatives of this company, 
among which was that of Federmann, of 
which mention has already been made in a 
preceding chapter. In addition to this noted 
55 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

enterprise, two others had been under- 
taken by the Welsers from Coro, headed 
by Ambrose Alfinger and George Hoher- 
muth. Three of these adventurous leaders, 
however, although they went in search of 
gold and other treasures, did not, as is so 
often stated, take any part in the quest of 
El Dorado, for the simple reason that they 
had never heard of this mythical person- 
age. A rumor regarding it first reached 
Von Hutten after he had left Coro on 
his way southward. It came to his ears 
through his camj^master, Pedro de Lim- 
pias, who had served with intelligence, 
valor, and distinction in the expeditions 
of Alfinger and Federmann, and who 
was, therefore, well acquainted with the 
regions which Von Hutten purposed visit- 
ing. To render the enterprise more attrac- 
tive and romantic, "De Limpias began," as 
Oviedo y Baiios informs us, "to designate 
the provinces which they were starting out 
56 



DE QUE SAD A AND VON HUTTEN 

to conquer by the high-standing name of El 
Dorado, an appellation which the soldiers 
of Belalcazar invented in Quito in 1536, 
because of the fantastic account which an 
Indian gave them of a powerful kingdom 
toward the east in the llanos, or because of 
a device of the devil, which is the more likely 
view, for the report being spread throughout 
America was the cause of all the deaths and 
misfortunes which the Spanish nation had 
to mourn in consequence of the numbers 
who, carried away by the fame of these 
mythical provinces, made an effort to dis- 
cover its alleged riches." " 

Yon Hutten had one hundred and thirty 
men under his command when he left Coro V 

in June, 1541. He went by sea to Bur- 
burata, thence to Valencia and Barquisi- 

^ "Historia de la Conquista y Poblacion de la Pro- 
vincia de Venezuela/' Tom. I, pp. 150-151, Madrid 
(1885). Cf. also "L'Occiipation Allemande du 
Venesuela au XVIe Siecle/' par Jules Humbert, Paris 
(1905). 

57 






THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

meto, whence he started for the llanos, fol- 
lowing closely in the footsteps of Feder- 
mann until he reached a pueblo called by 
this gallant commander La Fragua and by 
Hohermuth Nuestra Senora, but which was 
subsequently known as San Juan de los 
Llanos. Arrived at this place he learned 
from the Indians that Fernan Perez de 
Quesada had but a few days previously 
passed through it with a large force of foot 
and horse. 

After serious deliberation, Von Hutten 
concluded to follow closely in the rear of 
Quesada in the hope of sharing w^ith him 
the treasures of El Dorado, should he suc- 
ceed in discovering the whereabouts of the 
Gilded JVIan. The march of both expedi- 
tions was through trackless plains and wood- 
lands, across impetuous rivers and deep 
quagmires, in tropic heat and torrential rains 
that were more than enough to depress the 
stoutest hearts. But these intrepid soldiers 
58 



DE QUESADA AND VOX HUTTEN 

of fortune pressed onward, fully convinced 
that they would eventually find the object 
of their quest. After untold trials and dan- 
gers Quesada at length reached the Prov- 
ince of Papamene, at the headwaters of the 
Caqueta or Japura and thence made his 
way to Popayan, whence he was glad to re- 
turn to Bogota a wiser but a poorer man. 

Von Hutten, after following Quesada to 
Timana, near the crest of the eastern Cor- 
dillera, to the southeast of Popayan, faced 
about and directed his course toward the 
river Guaviare, on the banks of which his 
Indian guide had assured him was a great 
city called Macatoa, the capital of a region 
rich in gold and silver. As an evidence of 
the truth of his story he showed the German 
leader samples of gold fashioned in the form 
of apples or nisperos, which, he said, had 
been brought from that city. But before 
he could reach his eagerly coveted goal the 
winter season came on, and the entire region 
59 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

was inundated. There was then nothing for 
the Spaniards to do but seek higher ground 
and await the return of the dry season. But 
as the district in which they had taken refuge 
was sparsely populated and almost entirely 
destitute of the means of subsistence the 
valiant explorers soon began to experience 
all the horrors of famine. For a while their 
chief sustenance was a mixture of maize and 
ants. The ants were secured by placing 
some maize near the opening of an ant hill, 
and when it was covered w^ith these insects 
they consumed maize and insects together 
and thus allayed their hunger. But, as 
there was not enough of this aliment for all, 
many were fain to appease the gnawings of 
hunger by consuming grubs, beetles, or other 
things equally disgusting. In consequence 
of this their hair, beards and eyebrows fell 
off. "Finally," writes Oviedo y Baiios, "all 
were covered with pestiferous tumors and 
poisonous ulcers, and that afflicted troop was 
60 




I'uiMiTivi; :Mi:a.\s of X'avk;atiox in the Time of Those Who 
NYext IX Quest of El Dorado 



DE QUE SAD A AND VON HUTTEN 

converted into a theater of miseries and an 
hospital of misfortunes." ^ When the in- 
undation had subsided sufficiently to permit 
them to travel they resumed their march, 
and, after long wandering about in the wil- 
derness, they found themselves again at 
Nuestra Senora, whence they had departed 
a twelvemonth before. 

Their failure and hardships did not, how- 
ever, cause them to abandon their enterprise. 
Far from it. Their ardor was as quench- 
less and their determination to achieve suc- 
cess was as strong as when they had taken 
their departure from Coro. The reported 
existence toward the south of a country 
abounding in gold and silver supplied them 
with a new clew and gave new zest to the 
exjiedition. After a long and perilous 
march, during which they passed through 
the country of the Uapes and visited their 
capital, INIacatoa, the brave and persevering 

^^Op. cit., Tom. I, p. 157. 

63 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

expeditioners reached the land of the rich 
and powerful Omaguas who inhabited the 
territory between the Guaviare and the 
Caqueta, that land which Wallace, as late 
as 1853, called "the unknown regions be- 
tween the Rio Guaviare on one side and the 
Japura on the other." 

Here, from an elevated position, the ad- 
venturers descried what they fondly be- 
lieved was the goal which they had so long 
been striving to reach. It was a city so 
large, so they afterwards reported, that, 
though it was near at hand, it extended be- 
yond the range of vision. The streets were 
straight wdth the houses close together, and 
in the midst of all was an imposing edifice, 
which their Indian guide informed them was 
the palace of Quarica, the lord of the Oma- 
guas. The structure also served as a temple 
in which, Von Hutten's guide stated, were 
idols of massive gold. Some of them, he 
averred, were as large as children three and 
64 



DE QUE SAD A AND VON HUTTEN 

four years old, while one of them was of the 
size of a full-grown woman. Besides these 
objects there were also there incalculable 
treasures belonging to the cacique and his 
vassals. And beyond this great city, the 
Spaniards were assured, were other larger 
and richer cities belonging to powerful 
chieftains, who governed countless subjects 
and whose treasures of gold were far greater 
than those of the lord of the imposing city 
on which their eyes were then riveted. 

With such vast riches within their grasp 
the adventurers were beside themselves with 
joy. And although they counted but forty 
men, all told, they did not hesitate to attack 
a city in which, as they had been apprised, 
w^as a large and well-trained army. Putting 
spurs to his horse. Yon Hutten dashed for- 
ward, followed by his men, who all confi- 
dently expected to be in a few hours the 
possessors of princely fortunes. But a well- 
directed javelin from the hand of an Oma- 
65 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

guan Indian, which seriously wounded the 
daring leader, suddenly arrested the impet- 
uous onset and compelled the attacking 
party to beat a hasty retreat. But fifteen 
thousand Omaguan warriors were soon in 
hot pursuit and shortly after engaged the 
invaders in battle. The Indians, however, 
notwithstanding their vastly superior num- 
bers, were defeated with great loss, while 
the followers of Von Hutten, under the com- 
mand of Pedro de Limpias, did not have a 
single casualty. The victors then returned 
to Nuestra Senora, where six months before 
they had left their infirm and incapacitated 
companions. A council of war was now 
convened, in which it was decided not to 
prosecute the enterprise so auspiciously be- 
gun without more men. These had to be 
obtained from Coro. But Von Hutten did 
not live to realize his fond hopes, for he was 
soon afterwards cruelly murdered through 
the treachery of Pedro de Limpias, when 
66 







Amazons Practicing Archery on Their Prisoners and Pre- 
paring TO Roast Their Victims 

Raleigh says of them : "If in the wars they tooke any prisoners 
* * * in the end for certaine they put them to death, for 
they are said to he very cruel and bloodthirsty." Thpy were 
first heard of in South America when Orellana made his cele- 
brated voyage down the Amazon. 



DE QUE SAD A AND VOX HUTTEN 

those who had taken part in the expedition 
disbanded without making any further at- 
tempt to gain possession of the rich king- 
dom which they had discovered and which 
they had ah'eady considered as theirs by 
right of virtual conquest. 

Did Von Hutten really discover El 
Dorado? He certainly thought so, as did 
likewise his doughty followers. Fully cred- 
iting what his Indian guides had told him 
regarding the vast treasures of gold kept 
in tlie temple of the Omaguas, he concluded 
at once that the cacique of his tribe was no 
other than the long sought Gilded King, 
although he had no ocular evidence of the 
fact or any tangible proof of the existence 
of the great stores of gold and silver of 
which he had heard such glowing reports. 
As to the city of the Omaguas, which, we 
are told, was so large that it extended be- 
yond the range of vision, it was manifestly 
the creation of an excited fancy and as much 
69 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

of an exaggeration as the battle of forty 
Europeans against fifteen thousand Indians. 
It could, at best, have been nothing more 
than an agglomeration of villages, and the 
palace and temple, far from being the im- 
posing edifice described, was but a large 
thatched structure similar to those still seen 
in the region bordering the Equator.^ 

Be this, however, as it may, the fact re- 
mains that Von Hutten's expedition created 
an extraordinary sensation both in the New 
and in the Old World. Other adventurers 
had but heard of El Dorado, but the Ger- 
man commander and his men had actually 
located him and had gazed on his palace, 
which was an immense storehouse of silver 

* For the most complete and authentic account of 
the expedition of Philip Von Hutten the reader is 
referred to the "Noticias Historiales de las Con- 
quistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias Occidentales/' 
by Fray Pedro Simon^ Quinta Noticia^ Capitulos I 
to XI, inclusive, Cuenca (1626), or the 1882 edition 
of Bogota. 

70 



DE QUESADA AND VON HUTTEN 

and goldo Naturally they were elated, for 
they had succeeded in achieving what others 
had failed to accomplish. The Gilded Man 
was no longer a mere chimera but a being 
with a "local habitation and a name." He 
was the ruler of a densely populated region 
between the Guaviare and the Amazon 
and his people were known as Omaguas. 
Thenceforward the name El Dorado was 
coupled with that of the Omaguas and both 
names were regarded as synonymous with 
inexhaustible wealth. 



CHAPTER V 

EXPEDITIONS OF PEDRO DE URSUA, MAR- 
TIN DE PROVEDA, AND PEDRO DE 
SILVA 

A NEW impetus was now given to the 
quest of El Dorado and all eyes were turned 
to the land of the Omaguas. Hitherto al! 
expeditions in search of the ever-vanishing 
phantom had started from points north of 
Peru, but, in 1559, the viceroy of Peru, the 
JVIarquis of Caiiete, commissioned a young 
knight of Navarre, Pedro de Ursua, to lead 
an expedition to the land of the Omaguas 
in search of the Gilded King. Truth to tell, 
the real object of the viceroy in inaugu- 
rating this enterprise was to get rid of the 
large number of wild adventurers who had 
been attracted to Peru by the civil wars. 
Ursua soon found himself at the head of 
72 



URSUA, PROVEDA AND SILVA 

some hundreds of these lawless characters 
and, assuming the title of "Governor of 
Omagua and El Dorado/' he, in 1560, em- 
barked near Lamas on a hastily and rude- 
ly constructed craft and started down the 
River Huallaga. He soon reached the 
Amazon, and, sailing down this great river, 
he eventually reached the province of Machi- 
paro who, according to Padre Carvajal, 
the chronicler of Orellana's expedition, was 
a great lord who ruled over many peoples 
and who was the friend and ally of another 
powerful neighboring chief called Omagua. 
Owing to the hostility of Machiparo and 
his people, Orellana was not able to explore 
the interior of the country, but he learned 
that the chief of the region possessed great 
treasures of gold and silver. Ursua found, 
as had Yon Hutten and Orellana before 
him, the lands of JNIachiparo and Omagua 
so densely populated that, for a distance 
of eighty leagues, the settlements were so 
73 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

close together that they were not separated 
from one another by more than a crossbow 
shot — 720 habia de 2)ohlado a pohlado un tiro 
de hallesta — and that there was one compact 
city five leagues in length.^ 

Before Ursua, however, had time to ex- 
plore this region, where he expected to win 
fame and fortune, his career was cut short in 
the most tragic manner. Three months and 
six daj^s after faring forth on the Huallaga, 
and when he was within easy access of the 
rich lands of which Orellana had heard, but 
was unable to visit, the lands which Yon 
Hutten had seen but had not gained posses- 
sion of, he was, on Xew Year's day, cruelly 
murdered by some of his own men near the 
confluence of the Amazon and the Putu- 
mayo. But such a termination of this en- 

^ "Descubrimiento del Rio de las Amazonas segun 
la Relacion hasta j;hora inedita de Fr. Caspar Car- 
vajal/' p. 40^ por Jose Toribio Medina^ Sevilla 
(1894). 

74 



URSUA, PROVEDA AND SILVA 

terprise might have been foreseen, and in- 
deed had been foreseen by some of Ursua's 
friends, who tried, but in vain, to put him 
on his guard against certain of the treach- 
erous and dangerous characters who had 
joined the expedition. For among them, 
according to the Bachiller Francisco Vas- 
quez, who accompanied Ursua, and who 
wrote an account of the undertaking, were 
the offscourings of Peru, men who had been 
mutineers and traitors in the service of the 
Spanish monarch, and who had joined the 
expedition in order to elude the officers of 
justice and to escape the punishment due 
to their crimes." Such being the case, suc- 
cess was impossible, and the enterprise was 
doomed from the beginning. 

After Ursua's tragic fate, the command 

^ "Relacion de Todo lo que sucedio en la Jornada 
de Omagua y Dorado liecha por el Gobernador Pedro 
de Orsua," p. 31, Madrid (1881)^ and "Jornada del 
Rio Maraiion," Cap. Ill, by Toribio de Ortiguera, in 
"Historiadores de Indias/' Tom. II, Madrid (1909). 

75 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

of the expedition was usurped by the no- 
torious Lope de Aguirre, "The Traitor." 
All thought of discovering El Dorado was 
now abandoned. The tyrant even issued 
an order that no one should thenceforth 
speak of the Omaguas under penalty of 
death. For now the avowed purpose of 
Aguirre and his ilVIaranones, as he called his 
fellow conspirators, was nothing less than 
to reach the North Sea, the name then given 
to the Atlantic, and return by way of Pan- 
ama to Peru, with the design of starting an 
insurrection there, and wresting the govern- 
ment from the King of Spain, to whom, in 
his madness, he had foresworn allegiance. 
The only interest the expedition has for us 
after the assassination of Ursua attaches to 
the route by which the JNIaranones succeeded 
in crossing the continent and reaching the 
Atlantic. Extraordinary as it may seem, 
this route was by the Casiquiare, that won- 
derful waterway which connects the Ama- 
76 




Routes Followed in the Quest of El Dorado 



URSUA, PROVEDA AND SILVA 

zon with the Orinoco. For this achievement 
the piratical cruise of the "mad demon, 
Aguirre," will always remain memorable in 
the annals of geographical discovery." 

After the frightful hardships, losses of 
life, and tragic terminations of the expedi- 
tions of Von Hutten and Pedro de Ursua, 
one would have thought that further enter- 
prises of the kind would evoke but little 
enthusiasm. But such was not the case. 
The ardor of the restless, daring adven- 
turers of the time was as undamped as ever, 
and only two years after Aguirre's death, 
at the hand of his own Maranones, Martin 
de Proveda led an expedition in quest of 
El Dorado from Chachapoyas, Peru. He 
followed, apparently, the same route as that 
taken by Ursua until he attained the mouth 

^ For further information respecting this marvelous 
passage of the Casiquiare the reader is referred to 
the chapter on "The Romance of the Amazon'* in 
the author's "Along the Andes and Down the Ama- 



79 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

of the Xapo. From this point he directed 
his course toward the north and pushed for- 
ward through the dense woodlands and 
broad savannas, which are watered by the 
Putumayo, the Caqueta, and the Guaviare. 
He must, therefore, have followed, at least 
during a part of his journey, in the footsteps 
of Von Hutten, and must have come in con- 
tact with the Omaguas and Uapes, but with 
no result except a vague rumor of the exist- 
ence of rich provinces somewhere in the 
unexplored wilderness. After having lost 
most of his men, he finally arrived at San 
Juan de los Llanos, which had marked 
stages in the German expeditions of Hoher- 
muth, Federmann, and Von Hutten. From 
this place he proceeded in a northerly direc- 
tion, eventually crossing the eastern range 
of the Cordilleras, and arriving at Santa 
Fe de Bogota. Here the account of his 
adventures excited the greatest interest, for 
he was the first European, since the ill-fated 
80 



URSUA, PROVEDA AND SILVA 

expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro, to journey 
from the basin of the Amazon to the table- 
lands of the Andes. 

Among those who accompanied Proveda 
from Chachapoyas was a Spaniard from 
Estremadura named Pedro de Silva. In 
spite of the fruitless enterprise in which he 
had just taken part he was so convinced of 
the existence of the Gilded King that, a 
few years after his arrival at Bogota, he re- 
solved to go to Spain and organize there 
an expedition for the discovery of the phan- 
tom which had deluded so many previous 
adventurers. He succeeded without diffi- 
culty in securing from the Spanish mon- 
arch the concession of a certain region called 
the "Land of the Omaguas," which was 
thenceforth to be known as Xew Estre- 
madura, of which he was named adelantado. 
But stranger still was the ease with which 
he was able to obtain the necessary men 
and money for his undertaking. For no 
81 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

sooner was the object of his enterprise made 
known than crowds flocked to him from all 
quarters. And so great was the mad rush 
for the land of El Dorado that Spain, as 
Padre Simon tells us, could have been de- 
populated. Men sold all their property and 
willingly lent the proceeds to Silva, who 
promised to return all loans with a large 
premium as soon as they arrived in New^ 
Estremadura. Some gave him ten ducats, 
others a thousand, and all expected returns 
that would be many times greater than the 
amounts advanced. Some even sold their 
clothing and jewels in order to contribute' 
toward the equipment of the expedition, 
which was the first to be organized in Spain 
for the discovery of the land of the Gilded 
King. When the time came for embark- 
ing, Silva saw six hundred men — nobles and 
plebeians — ready to accompany him. More 
than one hundred of these were married and 
were prepared to depart with their families. 
82 



URSUA, PROVEDA AND SILVA 

The 19th of March, 1569, the expedition 
set sail from San Lucar, and in due course 
arrived at the island of JNIargarita. Here, 
owing to a disagreement, more than one 
hundred and fifty members of the expedi- 
tion declined to go farther. Shortly after- 
wards those who were left disembarked at 
Burburata on the northern coast of Vene- 
zuela, whence they proceeded to Valencia. 
The majority of them here deserted their 
leader, especially those who had their fami- 
lies with them. Of the large number who 
wxre with the governor on his departure 
from Spain only one hundred and forty sol- 
diers were now left, and with this small force 
he made haste, before it should be further 
diminished, to prosecute his enterprise. 
Leaving Valencia for the south he soon 
found himself in the boundless llanos of 
Venezuela, where they had to endure in- 
describable hardships through lack of food 
and the intense heat of the sunbaked region 

83 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

which they traversed. At tmies their course 
lay through immense swamps covered with 
coarse sedges — hke razor-grass — that cut 
the clothing from their backs ; at others over 
a parched desert — a fierce, gleaming, angry 
waste — where there was neither food nor 
water. Seeing nothing before them but 
starvation and death, most of Silva's remain- 
ing troops deserted him. The richly 
equipped expedition that had started out 
with such high hopes eventually dwindled 
down to thirty persons, many of whom were 
sick or worn out by fatigue and suffering. 
Finally, after fruitless wandering for six 
months about in the desolate and sparsely 
inhabited plains, the exhausted survivors of 
this disastrous enterprise succeeded in mak- 
ing their way to Barquisimeto, where they 
disbanded. From this place Silva departed 
for Bogota, whence he returned to his dis- 
tant home in Chachapoyas. 

One would naturally suppose that Silva's 
84 



URSUA, PROVEDA AND SILVA 

experience would have sufficed to deter him 
from taking part in any further enterprises 
in search of the phantom which had previ- 
ously been the cause of such frightful disas- 
ters. Far from it. He had scarcely reached 
home when he again set out for Spain to 
organize a second expedition for the search 
of El Dorado. And, incredible as it may 
seem, he was soon at the head of one hun- 
dred and seventy men, who were willing to 
risk their fortunes and lives in the quest of 
that ignis fatuus which had already led so 
many to destruction. Entering the Drag- 
on's Mouth, between the island of Trini- 
dad and Tierra Firme, he proceeded to a 
place about ninety leagues up the Orinoco. 
Here, what with fighting with the Caribs, 
and the inclemency of the climate, the 
plague of mosquitoes and other insects', 
many of his followers soon perished. The 
others, weakened by famine and disease and 
unable to offer any resistance to the hostile 

85 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

natives, eventually fell victims to their re- 
lentless enemies. Only one Spaniard- 
Juan JNIartin de Albujar — escaped with his 
life, and then only after a long captivity in 
the wilds of Guiana. 



CHAPTER VI 

EXPEDITION OF GONSALO XIMENES DE 
QUESADA 

The last two expeditions, that had cost 
so many hves and so much treasure, were 
not the only ones which were organized at 
this time to discover the coveted land of El 
Dorado. While Pedro de Silva was pre- 
paring in Spain for his first expedition, a 
similar enterprise was being organized in 
Xew Granada, and by no less a personage 
than the conqueror of that country, Gon- 
salo Ximenes de Quesada. For no sooner 
had word been received in Bogota of Silva's 
intentions and of his appointment as gover- 
nor of Nueva Estremadura than there was 
among all classes the most intense excite- 
ment. The region of which Silva had been 
made governor was claimed by New Gra- 
87 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

nada, and its citizens felt that they were 
being deprived of a portion of their territory. 
If Venezuela today were to take possession 
of a part of Colombia, the excitement could 
not be greater than it was when the people 
of Bogota first learned of Silva's appoint- 
ment to the governorship of the lands to the 
east of the Cordilleras. And the one who 
felt most aggrieved was the veteran Con- 
quistador, the Licentiate Ximenes de Que- 
sada. As conqueror of New Granada, he 
claimed all the territory to the east of 
Bogota for a distance of four hundred 
leagues between the river Pauto on the north 
of the Papamene on the south. This em- 
braced the greater part of the continent 
north of the Amazon and included, too, as 
all then agreed, the famous land of El Dora- 
do. As to the existence of such a region 
and of the Gilded Chieftain, who was then 
attracting even more attention than ever 
before, Quesada seems to have entertained 
88 



GOISTSALO X. DE QUESADA 

no doubt whatever. Such being the case, he 
could not brook the idea of anyone else ap- 
propriating what he regarded as the most 
valuable asset of his conquest. Pedro de 
Silva, while on his way with JNIartin de 
Proveda from Chachapoyas to Bogota, had 
been told by the Indians of the existence of 
a region beyond their own on the Meta and 
the Baraguan — one of the many names of 
the Orinoco — which was peopled by tribes 
who were so rich that all the service of their 
houses was of silver and gold. These and 
many similar stories,^ coupled with the re- 
ports of the expeditions which had been 
made by Diego de Ordaz and Alonzo de 
Herrera up the Orinoco and the INIeta and 
by Hohermuth and Von Hutten across the 
llanos to the east of the Andes, all conspired 
to excite anew the cupidity of those who 
were longing for new adventures and were 

^ Padre Simon, Op. cit., Tom. I, p. 349. 

89 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

but waiting for a leader in whom they had 
confidence. 

Quesada, the hero of a hundred battles 
and the successful commander in one of the 
most extraordinary campaigns in the his- 
tory of the Conquest, was their man. The 
fact that his brother, Fernan Perez de 
Quesada, had eighteen years before endured 
such hardships and lost all he possessed in 
search of the Gilded JNIan, and that many 
other enterprises, organized with the same 
end in view, had met with nothing but mis- 
ery and disaster, far from checking his 
ardor, which was still as undamped as when 
he led his gallant band from the valley of 
the Magdalena to the plateau of Cundina- 
marca, seemed an incentive to spur him on to 
achieve what others had failed to accomplish. 

In 15T9, Castellanos tells us, Quesada 

took his departure from Bogota with three 

hundred Spanish soldiers, fifteen hundred 

Indians and a large number of negroes, six 

90 




The Licentiate, Gonsalo Ximenes de Quesada, Conqueror of 
New Granada and One of Those Who ^A'ENT in Quest of 
El Dorado 



GONSALO X. DE QUESADA 

hundred cows, eight hundred swine, eleven 
hundred horses, and all the equipment neces- 
sary for a long campaign. Among those 
who accompanied him were many of noble 
lineage, who, as the old chronicler informs 
us, were willing to leave a life of ease and 
luxury for one of untold hardships and to 
exchange the certain for the uncertain and 
unknown. Castellanos, who had served un- 
der Quesada in his conquest of Xew Gra- 
nada and who was personally acquainted 
with many who took part in this enterprise 
in quest of El Dorado, in prefacing his ac- 
count of the expedition deplores the cupidity 
and folly of those who, having a competency, 
do not hesitate to leave their homes and ex- 
pose not only their own lives but also those 
of their families by embarking in perilous 
and bootless ventures. 

"To persuade idle and unmarried men, 
lazy vagabonds who neither have nor desire 
93 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

honest occupation, to take part in such en- 
terprises, would be tolerable, but it is wrong 
to incite married men, with their wives and 
children, as was then the case, to follow the 
flair of a land abounding in riches. Thus 
moved by false reports, married Spanish and 
mestiza women joined this miserable ex- 
pedition in which nearh^ all perished. I do 
not w\3h to believe that their husbands took 
them along to get rid of them, but rather to 
think that they were misled by vain promises 
and delusive hopes which issued in dread- 
ful catastrophes." ^ 

Crossing the eastern Cordilleras, the ex- 
peditioners proceeded to the pueblo of San 
Juan de los Llanos, which had previously 
supplied food and shelter to other adven- 
turers in search of gold and the land of the 
Gilded King. Soon after leaving this place 

" "Historia del Nuevo Reino de Granada/' Tom. II, 
p. 222, publicada por primera vez por D. Antonio Paz 
y Media, Madrid (1886). 

94 




Jtan db Castellanos, Author op Elegias de "Varones 

ILUSTRES DE INDIAS," AND "HlSTOUIA DEL NUEVO REIXO DE 

Granada" 

He was a soldier under tlie Conquistador, Gonsalo Ximenes de 
Quesada. and is our chief authority for the quest of the 
Gilded Chieftain by the conqueror of New Granada. After 
many years' service in the army, he became a priest and had 
charge' of a parish in Tunja, New Granada, where he died at 
an advanced age. 



GONSALO X. DE QUESADA 

they were exposed to great danger in one 
of those terrific prairie fires which frequent- 
ly sweep over the grass-covered llanos of 
this part of South America. Some days 
after this event they reached the rivers Gua- 
viare and Guaracare. Here they began to 
suffer from sickness and lack of food. They 
still, however, continued their course toward 
the land of the Omaguas, of which their 
guide, Diego Soleto, who had taken part in 
Proveda's expedition through this region, 
had given them such glowing accounts. But 
they had not proceeded far before the win- 
ter began. This added greatly to their dis- 
tress. The incessant rains which charac- 
terize this season soon converted the country 
through which they were marching into a 
region of impassable morasses and lagoons. 
This augmented the number of sick men and 
animals, and soon the line of march was 
strewn with dead Indians and horses; with 
saddles, clothing, jewels, trinkets — all of 
97 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

which were abandoned by their owners, who 
were so reduced by famine and disease that 
they were scarcely able to move. 

To remain longer in this inundated region 
meant certain death. They were, therefore, 
obliged to drag themselves to higher land, 
and to remain there until the waters should 
subside. After numerous fruitless attempts 
they finally found a suitable place, an Indian 
settlement, where they found sufficient 
maize and yuca to keep them from starva- 
tion. But here they were without salt, for 
the natives not only never used it, but had 
never even heard of it.^ The absence of this 
food ingredient greatly aggravated their 
miserable condition and was the cause of 
various diseases. Some became almost 
blind, others deaf, others, still, were covered 
with sores filled with worms, for which they 
could find no remedy, while yet others were 

^ Que nimca comen sal eternamente^ ni della por 
alii tienen noticia. Castellanos, op. cit. p. 241. 

98 



GOXSALO X. DE QUESADA 

afflicted with an intolerable itching, which 
never allowed them a moment's rest, day or 
night. So great, indeed, was their suffering 
that many became mad and died terrible 
deaths. And all this time, even in the ele- 
vated position in which they encamped, 
there was a continual downpour — agua del 
cielo y agua de la tierra — so that the wretch- 
ed wanderers could neither dry their clothes 
nor have a moment's repose. 

Losing all hope and seeing themselves in 
face of certain death, many deserted and en- 
deavored to make their way homeward. A 
few were successful, but a large number 
perished in the trackless wilderness either 
from starvation or at the hands of ferocious 
savages. Others mutinied and attempted 
the life of their leader, who they said was 
conducting them to inevitable destruction. 
But this attempt, which was foiled, was, 
Castellanos assures us, rather an act of de- 
spair than of malice. Taking pity on his 
101 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

sufFering and dejected followers, Quesada 
announced that all who desired to return to 
their homes were at liberty to do so. The 
majority of his men eagerly embraced this 
opportunity to withdraw from the depths 
of the dark and dismal forest, in which the}^ 
had so long been wandering, to a land where 
they might once more have a view of the 
clear blue sky overhead. After this the 
adelantado's force was reduced to forty-five 
men. With these heroic spirits he continued 
his journey and eventually reached a point 
near the site of the present pueblo of San 
Fernando de Atabapo, at the confluence of 
the GuaA^iare and the Orinoco. But the day 
at length arrived when the intrepid leader 
was forced to realize that he was at the end 
of his resources, and that his expedition, 
which had departed from Bogota with such 
a grand display and with such exalted hopes, 
was a failure. Accordingly, after three 
years of indescribable hardships; of forced 
102 



GONSALO X. DE QUESADA 

marches in dense, tangled jungles, through 
which they had to cut their way with 
machetes; of ceaseless conflicts with hostile 
savages, who burned their villages and pro- 
visions on the approach of the Spaniards; 
after enduring all the agonies of famine 
and tropical disease; after battling against 
the inclemency of an enervating climate 
and the clouds of noxious insects that tor- 
mented them day and night, without inter- 
mission, the hapless adventurers, who were 
now only twenty-five in number, faced 
about and began their long and arduous 
march toAvard Bogota. 

The net results of this undertaking, one 
of the best equipjied that ever went in 
search of the phantom which had lured so 
many to destruction, may be told in a few 
words. Of the three hundred Spaniards 
w^ho had embarked in the enterprise, only 
seventy-four escaped, and of these the 
greater number died of incurable diseases 
103 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

contracted during their wanderings in the 
pestilent climate of the sultry lowlands. Of 
the fifteen hundred Indians, there remained 
only four, and of the eleven hundred horses 
there were but eighteen. The expense en- 
tailed in equipping the enterprise amounted 
to more than two hundred thousand pesos 
in gold,^ the equivalent, in our money, of 
nearly $2,000,000. 

But a more regrettable loss than that of 
money was occasioned by the death of 
Padre Francisco JMedrano, who succumbed 
to an attack of fever which he contracted 
in the miasmatic jungles of the lowlands 
through which lay the line of march. This 
accomplished Franciscan friar had accom- 
panied Quesada as the chronicler of the ex- 
pedition, and, had it not been for his un- 
timely death, he would, to judge by his un- 
completed history of Xew Granada, which 

* Padre Simon says the amount exceeded three hun- 
dred thousand gold pesos. 

104 




Coat of Mail and Spur of Gonsalo Ximenes De Quesada 

Also the sword and dagger of Nicholas Federmann. the distin- 
guished rival of the Spanish Conquistador. Relics on exhibi- 
tion at the National Museum of Bogota. 



GONSALO X. DE QUE SAD A 

served as the basis of Padre Simon's price- 
less work, have given us a story of adventure 
of as thrilling interest as anything in litera- 
ture. Unfortunately all his papers regard- 
ing Quesada's enterprise have been lost, and 
we must now be satisfied with the brief but 
graphic account of his expedition which is 
contained in the "Historia del Nuevo Reino 
de Granada" of Juan de Castellanos. 

And what did Quesada and his followers 
receive in return for such a sacrifice of 
treasure and human life? Absolutely noth- 
ing. They did not find the slightest trace 
of the Gilded Chieftain nor the faintest in- 
dication of the rich and populous country 
to which their guide, Diego Soleto, had 
promised to lead them. The region through 
which they passed was for the most part al- 
most depopulated. Only here and there 
did the adventurers come across a few 
straggling huts, which were tenanted by a 
small number of wretched savages. The 
107 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

largest settlement they found during their 
three years' wanderings consisted of about 
thirty filthy hovels, and from these they 
were soon driven by the downpour that in- 
undated the country in which they were lo- 
cated. The expedition was for each and 
all a disastrous failure. 

Quesada had risked his health and life 
and fortune on the venture. He had lost 
his health and fortune, but his life was 
spared for a short while longer. Still, mar- 
velous to relate, in spite of his awful experi- 
ences and of those who, like him, had sac- 
rificed everything in the frenzied attempts 
to discover the land of El Dorado, his be- 
lief in the existence of this mythical terri- 
tory was still unshaken, and he regarded 
this region as the most valuable heritage he 
could transmit to his heirs. Before his de- 
mise, in Mariquita, near the JNIagdalena, 
where he spent the last days of his life, 
108 



GONSALO X. DE QUESADA 

he constituted Antonio de Berrio, who had 
married his sister's daughter, his heir and 
the governor of the vast region between the 
Pauto and the Papamene. 



CHAPTER VII 

EXPEDITIONS OF ANTONIO DE BERRIO, 
THE FRANCISCAN LAY BROTHERS AND 
NUFLO DE CHAVES 

After the tremendous failures that had 
signahzed the expeditions of the two Que- 
sadas in search of the Gilded King, one 
would suppose that it would have been im- 
possible to find again anyone who would be 
so foolish as to propose a new expedition in 
quest of El Dorado. This, however, was far 
from being the case. The multitude declared 
that all previous failures had been due to the 
fact that the expeditions already mentioned 
had not sought El Dorado in his proper ter- 
ritory, and that the quest should be continued 
in a region which had not yet been explored. 
It was now clear that the land of gold and 
silver was not to be found on the Andean 
plateaus or in the llanos skirting the eastern 
110 




KOUTB E'OLLOWED BV AnTONIO DB BERKIO IN QUEST OF EL DOUADO 



DE BERRIO AND DE CHAVES 

Cordilleras. This had been proved by the 
German expeditions from Coro and by the 
explorations of Proveda, Silva, and the 
Quesadas. But this, it was contended, was 
not conclusive against the existence of the 
Gilded King. It merely demonstrated that 
it was necessary to institute a search for him 
elsewhere, for people were fully convinced 
that it was only a question of time until the 
searchers for El Dorado would be rewarded 
by the discovery of the richest land and the 
wealthiest monarch in the New World and 
by gaining the possession of that splendor 
in the wilds of which they had so long 
dreamed — the palaces and pleasure domes of 
that gorgeous city to which 

Did visible guardians of the earth's great heart 
Bring their choice tributes culled from many a 
mine 

Diamond and jasper and porphyry and the art 
Of figured chrysolite; nor silver shine 

There wanted, nor the mightier power of gold. 

113 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

Antonio de Berrio also was evidently of 
this opinion, for, shortly after his uncle's 
death, he organized an expedition for the 
conquest of the region between the Pauto 
and the Papamene, of which he had inherited 
the governorship. Somewhere withir these 
limits and the mouth of the Orinoco was, he 
doubted not, the land of El Dorado. But 
where was it? That was the question to 
which he was determined to find an answer. 
As it had not been discovered in the west 
or south, in spite of the numerous explora- 
tions which had been made in these direc- 
tions, he concluded that it must lie toward 
the east. He was confirmed in this view by 
reports, already referred to, that had been 
circulated by those who had taken part in 
Proveda's enterprise. According to them, 
the Indians of the regions through which 
they had passed on their way to New Gra- 
nada had told them of a rich people and a 
114 



DE BERRIO AND DE CHAVES 

land ^ abounding in silver and gold on the 
borders of the JNIeta and the Baraguan. 
Xow the Baraguan was the old Indian 
name for the Orinoco between the mouth of 
the Guaviare and that of the Apure. To the 
east, therefore, he would go. 

It was in 1584 that Berrio left the table- 
land of New Granada for the valley of Bar- 
aguan. Crossing the Andes by way of the 
pueblo of Chita, where he had an encomi- 
enda, he descended the Pauto and the Cas- 
anare, by which he entered the ]Meta. Con- 
tinuing his voyage, he eventually entered 
the Baraguan, and, after voyaging down it 
for some distance, he disembarked and es- 
tablished his headquarters. From this point 
he began to reconnoiter the adjacent coun- 
try. Shortly afterwards he learned from an 
Indian, whom he had treated with special 
consideration, of the existence, at no great 
distance from where they then were, of the 

^ Padre Simon^ Tom. I, p. 349. 
115 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

rich and auriferous lands around the great 
lake of Manoa. This report at once revived 
the drooping spirits of Berrio's men, who 
had begun to experience the ill effects of the 
countless hardships to which they had been 
exposed in traversing the disease-breeding 
valleys of the Casanare and the Baraguan. 
The adventurers now felt sure that they were 
on the right track, but after three years' 
futile wandering through dark forests and 
over desert plains, after enduring all the 
horrors of famine and seeing their numbers 
decimated by disease and the poisoned ar- 
rows of hostile savages, they were at length 
compelled to return to their homes in New 
Granada. 

But, notwithstanding Berrio's dreadful 
experiences during this long expedition in a 
wild and unexplored region, it was not long 
before he determined to make a second at- 
tempt to achieve success. Accompanied by 
a resolute band of adventurers, he again 
116 




Reputed Scene at Manoa or Dorado 

Capt. Keymis. one of Raleigh's companions in a later expedition, 
refers to the Essekebe River shown here, and also speaks of 
the Indians carrying boats and cargoes overland to Lake 
Foponowini. 



DE BERRIO AND DE CHAVES 

crossed the sierra and, after surmounting 
many difficulties, he finally reached the 
lower Orinoco, where he founded the town 
of Santo Tome de Guiana, near the con- 
fluence of the Caroni and the Orinoco. After 
this he proceeded to the island of Trinidad, 
w^here he laid the foundations of another 
town, known as San Jose de Oruno. 

Having in these two towns bases for fu- 
ture operations, the governor now^ turned 
his attention anew to the quest of the Gilded 
King, regarding whom and the rich lands, 
over which he was said to bear rule, Berrio 
received daily the most extravagant reports. 
The region in question was said to be to the 
southeast of Santo Tome and was called 
Manoa, from the name of a large lake lo- 
cated in its midst. It was further averred 
that the cacique to whom it was subject w^as 
accustomed, all bespangled with gold, to 
offer sacrifice in this lake, whence his prov- 
ince, like that of the Omaguas, began to be 
119 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

called El Dorado. The home of the Gilded 
Chieftain was now transferred from the ele- 
vated plateau of Cundinamarea to the low- 
lands of southeastern Guiana; from Gua- 
tavita to JVIanoa ; from one end of the conti- 
nent to the other. The lying statements 
about this mythical personage, Padre Simon 
declares, were put in circulation by the as- 
tute Indians, who wished to inveigle the 
Spaniards from the settlements they had 
made, or else they were the invention of the 
devil, who desired to lure the adventurers to 
certain destruction.^ 

But whatever was the origin of these re- 
ports, the Spaniards had no hesitation in ac- 
cepting them as true. Their quarry, so long 
and eagerly sought, was at last located be- 
yond peradventure, and it only remained for 
them to make themselves masters of the 

^ Todo embuste e invencion de los indios para echar 
los espailoles de sus tierras o traza del demonio para 
que pereciera tanta gente espaiiola. Op. cit. Tom. I, 
p. 361. 

120 



DE BERRIO AXD DE CHAVES 

golden region that was so near at hand. Ber- 
rio, especially, was more than elated, for he 
felt that he was soon to enter upon the glo- 
rious inheritance which had so long been the 
object of his ceaseless toil. In order, how- 
ever, to be prepared for all emergencies, 
and to make sure of getting possession of 
the land of untold treasure, he bethought 
him of the necessity of increasing the force 
under his command. He, accordingly, com- 
missioned his campmaster, Domingo De 
Vera, to go to Spain for men and money 
to guarantee the success of the contemplated 
expedition to JNIanoa. 

He could not have made a better choice, 
for De Vera was not only a man of rare in- 
telligence, but he, moreover, possessed the 
faculty of presenting any scheme in which he 
was interested in the most plausible light. 
If facts were not available, he did not hesi- 
tate to draw on his imagination, which al- 
ways stood him in good stead when promot- 
121 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

ing an enterprise like the one in which he 
was then engaged. According to Berrio's 
instructions, De Vera was to bring three 
hundred men and no more. But so success- 
ful was he in exciting interest in the expe- 
dition to El Dorado, which now meant a 
province as well as a gilded chieftain, as 
originally, that crowds flocked to him from 
all quarters begging to be allowed to share 
in an enterprise in which fortune and glory 
were certainties. To excite the cupidity and 
enthusiasm of the multitude, De Vera ex- 
hibited gold, jewels, and uncut emeralds 
which he had brought from New Granada, 
and assured them that the land whose con- 
quest was in view abounded in these treas- 
ures to an incredible extent. 

With these and similar alluring tales he 
found no difficulty in securing volunteers for 
the enterprise, which was to bring inestima- 
ble wealth to all who should have the good 
fortune to have part in it. Wherever he and 
122 




Indians Near Manoa Smelting Gold and Casting it into 
Ingots, According to Reports Brought to Those in Quest 
OF El Dorado 



DE BERRIO AND DE CHAVES 

his agents went they were besieged by ap- 
phcants from all classes of society, who were 
eager to go without delay to the marvelous 
region of Manoa. Gentle and simple, mem- 
bers of the court and the royal council of 
the Indies, farmers and tradesmen, veterans 
who had fought in the wars of Italy and 
Flanders, gathered about De Vera and his 
representatives and offered them large sums 
of money for the privilege of being allowed 
to embark in the seductive enterprise. Men 
who had comfortable homes sold them, to- 
gether with all their possessions, deeming 
them as dross in comparison with what they 
were sure to find in Manoa, 

Spain became El Dorado-mad, and the 
craze started by De Vera assumed such pro- 
portions that an old chronicler avers that it 
would then have been possible entirely to 
depopulate La Mancha and Estremadura 
and the kingdoms of Toledo and Castile. 
And as for money for equipping the expe- 
125 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

dition, it poured in from all directions. The 
Spanish court alone contributed seventy 
thousand ducats, more, Padre Simon de- 
clares, than the sum expended by the Crown 
of Castile for the discovery of the New 
World.^ 

When De Vera sailed from San Lucar 
in February, 1595, he was the commander 
of an imposing fleet with more than two 
thousand souls aboard,* more than twenty 

^ J. B. Thatcher, in his "Christopher Columbus, 
His Life, His Work^ His Remains," Vol. I, p. 490, 
estimates the cost of the first expedition of Colum- 
bus at $4,560 of our money, if calculated on a silver 
basis, and at $7,203 if computed on a gold basis. 
But the purchasing power of these sums four cen- 
turies ago was eight to ten times as great as they are 
today. Estimating on the same basis, the amount 
contributed to De Vera's expedition by the Castilian 
court, we find that it was about seventeen times as 
great as that which was received by Columbus for 
his epoch-making discovery of the New World. 

^ Y eran muchas mas cuando desembarcaron, porque, 
como iban muchas mujeres parieron muchas en los 
navios. Padre Simon, ut sup., p. 363. 

126 



DE BERRIO AND DE CHAVES 

times as many as Columbus had with him 
when he set sail in the "sea of darkness" on 
that memorable voyage which gave to Cas- 
tile and Leon a new world. JNIany of these 
were women and children, for the fathers 
of families had been so fascinated by the 
stories they had heard about the province 
of El Dorado that they thought they were 
going to a sort of terrestrial paradise. 

But how soon they were disenchanted! 
Scarcely had they set foot on the island of 
Trinidad when their hardships and suffer- 
ings began. The city of San Jose proved 
to be but a small village, composed of a few 
huts, and barely adequate to shelter its few 
inhabitants. The newcomers were, there- 
fore, until temporary sheds could be erected, 
exposed to the drenching rains and the pros- 
trating heat of the tropics. And, to add to 
their distress, it was not long before they 
began to experience the effects of famine, 
for the only provisions available were those 
127 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

they had brought with them from Spain, 
and, to make matters worse, a great part of 
those, in consequence of the humid, steaming 
chmate, soon became unfit for use. 

Great, however, as were the miseries of 
those who remained in Trinidad, they were 
incomparably less than the calamities of 
those who went to Santo Tome, where Gov- 
ernor Berrio was awaiting their arrival be- 
fore completing arrangements for the ex- 
pedition to Manoa. The so-called city of 
Santo Tome, like San Jose, was but a small 
town of hastily constructed sheds and cabins, 
barely sufficient to shield their inmates from 
the inclemency of a tropical climate. But 
to reach this place, forty leagues up the 
Orinoco, was a terrific undertaking. Instead 
of going thither in the vessels that had 
brought them from the mother country, as 
they might easily have done, they ventured 
forth in small canoes. This involved a long 
and painful struggle of thirty days against 
128 



t. 



^ -s 





^?4 \^ 



From De Bry 

Spanish Soldiers Sent to Reconnoiter at Manoa Pit to 
Death by the Indians 



DE BERRIO AND DE CHAVES 

the billows of the Gulf of Paria and the im- 
petuous current of the Orinoco. Many of 
the adventurers were drowned in the Ori- 
noco -or met most frightful deaths at the 
hands of the Caribs, who were lying in wait 
for them. Those who eventually arrived at 
their destination were sent with as little de- 
lay as possible toward the south to take pos- 
session of the land of El Dorado, which they 
now regarded as w^ithin their grasp. But 
they had not proceeded far on their jour- 
ney when they ran short of provisions. Even 
the cassava and fruits, which they were at 
first able to secure from the Indians, now 
failed them. The wily savages had drawn 
the fortune-seekers into the wilderness, 
knowing well that famine and disease would 
soon do their work without resort to arms. 
In a short time the Indians saw the invaders 
so prostrated by hunger and malignant 
fevers that they gathered their concealed 
forces and almost exterminated them. Of 
131 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

the three hundred who had but a short time 
before left Santo Tome, with the assurance 
of soon reaching the great capital of the 
Gilded King, only thirty returned, and of 
these one-half were soon in their graves in 
consequence of the incurable diseases which 
they had contracted during their short but 
calamitous campaign. 

The ranks of those who remained in Santo 
Tome were likewise rapidly decimated, for 
it was not long until a plague — apparently 
yellow fever — broke out and made the most 
frightful ravages among the inhabitants 
who were already almost exhausted by sick- 
ness and famine. 

With neither food nor medicine, it was 
impossible to offer any resistance to the 
dread visitant. Those who had remained 
in Trinidad also saw their ranks rapidly 
thinned by disease and lack of means of sub- 
sistence. But they had, writes an old chron- 
icler, one grim advantage over their hapless 
132 



DE BERRIO AND DE CHAVES 

brethren in Santo Tome. They had two 
forges, which they had brought with them 
for the purpose of repairing their arms and 
tools. These they used for heating irons 
with which to cauterize the wounds of those 
who had been infected by poisonous insects 
and to burn off the toes of those who were 
suffering from the gangrenous sores caused 
by the ubiquitous pest of the tropics — the 
flesh-penetrating chigoe. 

Berrio's quest of El Dorado, like all pre- 
ceding ones, ended in disaster. Shortly after 
the fatal termination of the expedition to 
Manoa he died in Santo Tome, while his 
lieutenant, De Vera, soon followed him to 
the grave, dying at San Jose, in Trinidad, 
as was said of him, "with greater sufferings 
than patience." 

Thus ended Berrio's pompously heralded 

expedition to El Dorado. "It was," writes 

Padre Simon, "like the statue of Xabucho- 

donosor, beginning with a head of gold and 

133 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

ending with feet of clay, and a lamentable 
downfall. God grant that it may serve as a 
warning and as a disillusionment for those 
who may be tempted to take part in such en- 
terprises in the future." ^ 

The old friar's desire was realized so far 
as concerned any great expeditions of the 
kind that were thenceforth organized by 
Spaniards or conducted under Spanish aus- 
pices. But expeditions on a smaller scale 
were of frequent occurrence for a long time 
afterwards. Reference must be made to one 
of these, because it was as remarkable for 
the simplicity of its equipment as for the 
small number of those who took part in it. 
It is known in the annals of South American 
discovery as El Viaje de los Legos Fr^ancis- 
canos — The Voyage of the Franciscan Lay 
Brothers — and was made in 1637. Accom- 
panied by only six Spanish soldiers and two 
Indians, these intrepid men. Fray Domingo 

^ Ut sup., p. 372. 

134 



DE BERRIO AND DE CHAVES 

de Brieva and Fray Andres de Toledo, 
started from the eastern slope of the Andes 
in search of El Dorado and the Temple of 
the Sun. And with no preparation what- 
ever, and having nothing more than the 
clothes on their backs and a small dugout, 
they made their way down the Napo and 
the Amazon, subsisting on such provisions 
as they could find on their way or obtain 
from the Indians. And during this long 
voyage, which a century before Orellana had 
been able to make only after incredible dif- 
ficulties and hardships, they never encoun- 
tered any danger from the Indians nor did 
they suffer from lack of means of subsist- 
ence. At the end of three months they ar- 
rived at Para, near the mouth of the Ama- 
zon, and were able and ready, not long aft- 
erwards, to conduct the Portuguese captain, 
Pedro Texeira, on his famous expedition 
from Para to Quito. The friars, like all 
previous adventurers, failed to discover any 
137 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

trace of El Dorado, but, unlike their prede- 
cessors, they were able to accomplish their 
marvelous enterprise without loss of life and 
were able to declare on their return that dur- 
ing their entire journey they were as free 
from danger as if they had been at home in 
their own convents.^ 

Mention should also be made of an early 
expedition organized in 1560 in Asuncion, 
on the Rio de la Plata, by Capt. Nuflo de 
Chaves. It is worthy of notice as indicating 
how widely circulated at an early date were 
the reports regarding El Dorado and how 
vague and conflicting they wei;e concerning 

^ Hicieron su viaj e diirmiendo todas las noclies en 
tierra tan seguros como si estuvieran en sus conventos 
sin sucederles cosa adversa, sino todas prosperas, 
todas felices. Fray Diego de Cordobn j Salinas, 
"Cronica de la Religiosisima provincia de los doce 
Apostles del Peru," Ca}^. 32-34, Lima (1651). For 
an account of this remarkable expedition, see 
"Nuevo Descubrimiento del Rio del Maranon Llamado 
de las Amazonas," by F. Laureano de la Cruz (1653), 
first published at Madrid in 1900. 

138 



DE BERRIO AND DE CHAVES 

the location of the region where this fabu- 
lous chieftain was supposed to have his 
home. After a vain pursuit of the Gilded 
King in the territories watered by the Pil- 
comayo and the Paraguay the gallant cap- 
tain, who had previously won distinction by 
his numerous achievements in this part of 
South America, finally arrived at the upper 
reaches of the JNIamore, in the present Re- 
public of Bolivia, where the expedition dis- 
banded without accomplishing any more 
than had similar undertakings in the north- 
ern part of the continent J 

^ "Descripcion de las Indias Occidentales" de An- 
tonio Herrera, Cap. XXI, Madrid (1730). 



CHAPTER VIII 

EXPEDITION OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

By one of those striking coincidences that 
mark the progress of maritime discovery, as 
well as that of scientific invention, the very 
month which saw De Yera's fleet set sail 
from San Lucar also witnessed Sir Walter 
Raleigh's famous expedition starting from 
Plymouth and having in view the same ob- 
ject as the adventurers from Spain. In some 
respects this English enterprise was one of 
the most extraordinary episodes in the an- 
nals of American exploration and discovery, 
as in its final results it was one of the most 
tragic. It is sometimes asserted that only 
the Spaniards could have had part in such 
Quixotic undertakings as the pursuit of the 
Gilded Man, but here we have one whom 
140 



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Sill Walter Raleigh 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Englishmen are wont to laud as "The great 
Raleigh," as "The first apostle and martyr 
of the British Colonial Empire," as "The 
founder of the greater England across the 
seas," and as one who was as distinguished 
for shrewdness in affairs as he was eminent 
in clear-sighted political wisdom. 

Be this as it may, neither he nor others of 
his countrymen, likewise remarkable for 
business acumen, w^ere proof against the glit- 
tering mirage of El Dorado, which had al- 
ready lured so many thousands to prema- 
ture deaths. With Raleigh, doubtless, one 
of the motives that impelled him to under- 
take the hazardous and exhausting expedi- 
tion to Guiana was to regain the favor of 
Queen Elizabeth, which had recently been 
forfeited. Then, too, there was the lure of 
adventure and excitement, the love of swift, 
brilliant action, and the intolerance of the 
common, which were such marked character- 
istics of this remarkable man. 
143 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

While in retirement in his Dorsetshire 
home, after his enforced withdrawal from 
court, Raleigh devoted much time to the 
travel lore of Spain and read with avidity 
all the works he could procure on the 
achievements of the Conquistadores and the 
expeditions of those who had gone in quest 
of the Gilded King and the fabled l:ind of 
gold and treasure inestimable. Others of 
his countrymen had dreamed of a westward 
passage to the Indies, by means of which 
could be tapped the trade of the teeming 
East ; of sudden riches to be had in the land 
of spices and in the golden Chersonese, but 
the vast golden empire of Manoa appealed 
in a special manner to one like Raleigh, who 
was always hankering after new adventures, 
and it seemed to haunt his imagination in 
the most imperious manner. Ever domi- 
nated by a nervous desire to attain wealth 
and honor and power, he felt himself beck- 
oned toward the region watered by the great 
144 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

Orinoco. Once there he would not be far 
from the object of his heart's desire, for he 
could already in his dreams see himself the 
2)ossessor of wealth untold and assured of 
undying fame as the one "who had endowed 
his country with the mighty El Dorado." 
He was well aware of the tragic issues of 
previous Spanish and German expedition- 
ers, but, notwithstanding all this, he consid- 
ered the venture, to use his own words, "fea- 
sible and certain." The long catalogue of ca- 
tastrophes which signalized the undertakings 
of his predecessors and the failures that in- 
variably attended all their efforts, far from 
abating his enthusiasm or weakening his res- 
olution, but kindled the fire of enterprise and 
spurred him to achieve what others had es- 
sayed but failed to accomplish. 

Strange as it may appear, Raleigh experi- 
enced but little difficulty in interesting his 
prosaic and conservative countrymen in the 
scheme in which he himself was prepared to 
145 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

venture fortune and life. The hope of rapid 
gain aroused their cupidity at once. Abound- 
ing gold and virgin lands of vast extent were 
to them, as well as to the poetical and ro- 
mantic sons of Spain, potent talismans for 
retrieving lost fortunes and securing the lux- 
uries and pomps of life. Among those who 
gave liberal furtherance to Raleigh's enter- 
prise were some of the most prominent men 
of the realm and most influential members 
of the court. The glamour of the marvelous, 
coupled with the glowing descriptions of the 
great empire of Guiana with its inexhaust- 
ible riches, sufficed, in Raleigh's, as in De 
Vera's case, to secure all the money neces- 
sary for the equipment of the expedition 
that was to redound to the eternal glory of 
the leader and of all his associates. One of 
the contributors to the enterprise was the il- 
lustrious statesman. Sir Robert Cecil, while 
one of the ships in Raleigh's squadron of 
146 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

five vessels belonged to the Lord High Ad- 
miral of England. 

Raleigh's fleet set sail from Plymouth 
February 9, 1595, and arrived at Trinidad, 
opposite the mouth of the Orinoco, before 
the end of the following month. During the 
voyage westward, near the Canaries, he in- 
creased his stores by appropriating those be- 
longing to two foreign vessels — a Spaniard 
laden with firearms and a Fleming freighted 
with wines — a little privateering work which 
was permitted by the commission of Queen 
Elizabeth, who was nothing loath to connive 
at warfare against her enemies so long as it 
was known to be against her public com- 
mand.^ 

^ The terms of his commission from the Queen 
expressly empowered him "to do Us service in of- 
fending the King of Spain and his subjects in his 
dominions to your uttermost power"; all who sailed 
under him, or should afterwards consort with his 
fleet^ are bound to give due obedience in whatever 
"you shall think meet to direct or undertake for the 
prejudice of the said King of Spain^ or any of Our 

147 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

Arrived at Trinidad, Sir Walter set about 
getting information regarding the land of 
El Dorado and the easiest means of making 
the voyage up the Orinoco. The previous 
year he had dispatched Capt. Whiddon to 
explore this river and its tributaries, but his 
emissary being thwarted in his designs by 
Antonio de Berrio, who was then governor 
of Trinidad as well as of the Orinoco re- 
gion, was obliged to return to England with- 
out the information he had gone to seek, and 
which was so essential to the success of his 
chief's expedition. I give Raleigh's method 
of procedure in obtaining the knowledge he 
desired in his own words : 

enemies"; and whatever shall be done under that 
commission^ "as well by sea as by land^ for the 
furtherance of this^ Our service and enfeebling of 
Our enemies^ the subjects and adherents of the King 
of Spain, }^ou and all such as serve under you in this 
voyage shall be clearly acquitted and discharged." — 
"The Life of Sir Walter Raleigh/' Vol. I, p. 195, by 
Edward Edwards, London, 1868. 

148 




Route Followed by Sir Walter Raleigh in Search of El 
Dorado 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

"While we remained at Puerto de los 
Hispanioles some Spaniards came abord us 
to buy lynnen of the company and such 
things as they wanted, and also to view our 
shippes and company, all of which I enter- 
tained kindly and feasted after our manner; 
by means whereof I learned of one and an- 
other as much of the estate of Guiana as I 
could, or as they knew, for these poore sould- 
iers having been many yeares without wine, 
a few draughts made them merry, in which 
moode they vaunted of Guiana and of the 
riches thereof, and all what they knew of the 
waies and passages, my selfe seeming to pur- 
pose nothing lesse than the enterance or dis- 
couerie thereof, but bred in them an opinion 
that I was bound onely for the reliefe of 
those English which I had planted in Vir- 
ginia, whereof the brute was come among 
them." ^ 

^ "The Discovery of the Large^ Rich and Beautiful 
Empire of Guiana^ with a Relation of the Great and 

151 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

After securing all the information pos- 
sible from the "poore souldiers," who had 
been made "merry" by the wine which he had 
captured at the Canaries on his way west, 
Raleigh next proceeded to protect his rear 
from the attacks of the Spaniards who, he 
had reason to apprehend, would make every 
effort possible to frustrate his project. 

"So, considering that to enter Guiana by 
small boats, to depart 400 to 500 miles from 
my ships, and leave a garrison in my backe 
interested in the same enterprize, who also 
daily expected supplies out of Spaine, I 
should have sauoured very much of the Asse ; 
and therefore taking a time of most aduan- 
tage, I set upon the Corp du guard in the 
euening, and hauing put them to the swored, 
toke their new city which they call S. Joseph 

Golden City of Manoa, which the Spaniards call El 
Dorado/' etc.^ performed in the year 1595 by Sir Wal- 
ter Raleigh, Knt. Pub. by the Hakluyt Society, Lon- 
don (1848). 

152 




From De Bry 
The Burning of St. Joseph by Sir Walter Raleigh 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

by breake of day; they abode not any fight 
after a few shot, and all being dismissed but 
onely Berreo and his companion, I brought 
them with me abord, and at the instance of 
the Indians I set their new city of S. Joseph 
on fire." ^ 

Having complied with the wishes of his 
Queen, by thus "offending the King of 
Spain and his subjects," and completed all 
arrangements for the conquest of Guiana, 
Raleigh hastened toward his "purposed dis- 
covery." But before proceeding up the Ori- 
noco he determined to make friends of the 
Indians of Trinidad. Calling together their 
chiefs, "I made them understand," he in- 
forms us, "that I was seruant of a Queene, 
who was the great Cacique of the north, and 
a virgin, and had more Caciqui under her 
than there were trees in their island ; that she 
was an enemy to the Castellani in respect of 

^ Ut sup., p. 8. 

155 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

their tyrannic and oppression and that she 
delivered all such nations about her, as were 
by them oppressed, and hauing freed all the 
coast of the northern world from seruitude 
had sent me to free them also, and withal 
to defend the country of Guiana from their 
invasion and conquest. I shewed them her 
maiesties picture, which they so admired and 
honored, as it had beene easie to haue 
brought them idolatrous thereof." * 

The way, so the doughty-handed adven- 
turer thought, was now clear. His base was 
safe, the Indians were his friends and allies, 
and Berrio was his prisoner. There was 
still, it is true, one great difficulty in the way, 
and that was regarding the exact location 
of Manoa Concerning this Raleigh de- 
clares : 

"My intelligence was farre from the 
trueth, for the country is situate about 600 
* Ut sup.^ p. 8. 

156 




From Gottfriedt 
Raleigh Going up the Orinoco 

During his voyage up tbe river Raleigh saw, he declares, "Divers 
sorts of strange fishes of marvelous bigness," and thousands 
of "those uglie serpents called Lagartos — alligators. I had 
a negro, a very proper young fellow, that, leaping out the 
g'^lley to swim in the mouth of the river, was, in all our 
sights, taken and devoured by one of those Lagartos." 



SIR .WALTER RALEIGH 

English miles farther from the sea than I 
was made beleeiie it had beene, which after- 
ward understanding to be true by Berreo, I 
kept from the knowledge of my companie, 
who else would neuer have been brought to 
attempt the same." 

From lack of information regarding the 
Orinoco he left his ships at anchor off Trini- 
dad and started up the river in barges, ship's 
boats, wherries, and a "Gallego bote fitted 
with banks to row on," in which he placed 
one hundred men and provisions for a 
month. His troubles now began. For, 
owing to their restricted quarters, "we were," 
he says : 

"al driven to lie in the raine and wether, 
in the open aire, in the burning sunne, and 
upon hard bords and to dresse our meat, and 
to carry al manner of furniture in them 
wherewith they were so pestered and un- 
sauery that, what with victuals being most 
159 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

fish, with the weete clothes of so many men 
thrust together and the heate of the sunne, 
I will undertake there was neuer any prison 
in England that coulde be founde more un- 
sauery and lothsome, especially to my self, 
who had for many yeares before beene dieted 
and cared for in a sort farre differing." ^ 

But this was not all. The fortune-seekers 
soon found themselves lost in the tortuous 
mazes of the delta of the great river, and, 
had they not been fortunate in securing a 
native pilot, they "might haue wandred a 
whole yeare in that labyrinth of rivers." 

"For I know all the earth [the great navi- 
gator writes without exaggeration in this in- 
stance] doth not yeeld the like confluence of 
streams and branches, the one crossing the 
other so many times, and all so faire and 
large and so like one to another, as no man 
can tell which to take ; and if we went by the 

^ Op. cit, p. 10. 

160 




Houses op the Indians on the Lower Orinoco 

Ilaleigh called those Indians Tinitinas, and states that during 
the winter, when the river is in flood, "they dwell upon the 
trees, where they build very artificiall townes and villages." 
This story of Raleigh's, which had no more foundation in fact 
than many of his other yarns, was generally accepted as true 
until only a few years ago. Even the great Humboldt, who 
never visited the delta of the Orinoco, repeats the story with 
embellishments of his own. 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

sunne or compasse, hoping thereby to go di- 
rectly one way or another, yet that waie we 
were also carried in a circle amongst multi- 
tudes of Hands and every Hand so bordered 
with high trees as no man could see any 
farther than the bredth of the riuer or length 
of the breach." ^ 

Then, in addition to this difficulty, there 
was the powerful current of the river to over- 
come, which they struggled against until 
they were so exhausted that they were on the 
verge of despair. Finally, however, after 
fifteen days of hardships that can be fully 
appreciated only by one who has visited this 
part of the world, the intrepid band emerged 
from the labyrinth of the delta and caught 
their first view of the Orinoco in all its im- 
pressive grandeur and majesty. Had they 
been better advised, they might have reached 
the river in the ships which they had left be- 

^ Op. cit., p. 46. 

163 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

hind them, for the Orinoco is navigable by 
ocean vessels for hundreds of miles, and 
they would have covered the distance, which 
cost them so many days, in a comparatively 
short time and with far less effort. 

Raleigh's eyes at last rested on the waters 
of the river of which he had so often dreamed 
— the river that was to bear him to 

"that mighty, rich, and beautiful Empire of 
Guiana and to that great and golden citie 
which the Spanyards call El Dorado and the 
naturals JNlanoa — to a country which hath 
more quantity of gold, by manifolde, than 
the best partes of the Indies of Peru." 

For 3^ears Raleigh had been devouring 
every document he could lay his hands on 
that had any reference to El Dorado. He 
had questioned every seaman who had been 
in the New World with a view to securing all 
the knowledge possible respecting the precise 
164 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

location and extent and riches of the great 
Empire of Guiana. He had consulted the 
Indians in Trinidad and along the banks of 
the Orinoco, and had succeeded in inducing 
his prisoner, Berrio, to impart to him all the 
knowledge he had regarding the country 
which he purposed offering to his Queen. 
And now, after all this preparation, there 
could be no longer any doubt of the success 
of his enterprise. Further incredulity would 
be tantamount to denying the validity of 
human testimony and the evidence of 
the senses. "For on the fifteenth day," as 
he assures us, "we discouered a farre off 
the mountaines of Guiana, to our great 

joy." 

JNIoreover, did not his captive De Berrio, 
who pompously styled himself the governor 
of Trinidad, Guiana, and El Dorado, have 
actually in his possession documentary evi- 
dence of the vast treasures of INIanoa ? Had 
he not the testimony of one, Juan Marlines, 
165 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

who had spent seven months in this great 
city — being lodged and entertained all the 
while in the Emperor's own palace? And 
had not this eyewitness, in speaking of the 
magnitude of the city, solemnly averred on 
his deathbed that "he entered the city at 
noon, and that he traveled al that daie til 
night thorow the citie and the next daie from 
sun rising to sun setting ere he came to the 
palace of the Inga"? Had he not been a 
spectator of the abundance of gold which its 
inhabitants possessed? And had he not be- 
held "the images of gold in their temples, the 
plates, armors, and shields of gold which 
they use in the wars"? Had he not noted 
that "the people of Manoa were maruevlous 
great drunkardes," and that "at times of 
their solemne feasts, when the Emperor ca- 
rowseth with his captayns, tributaries and 
gouernours — all those that pledge him are 
stripped naked, and have their bodies 
anoynted al ouer, with a kind of white bal- 
166 



' . ■ f'"?-^^i:^t^4 


^ 


1 




"i A 


4 






"r. '■• ^ 



LA 



Section of Raleigh's Map of Gliana 

The locations of the Lake and City of Manoa are here shown. 
The geographer Hondius who constructed his map of Guiana 
shortly after Raleigh's return from his first expedition, lo- 
cates "Lake Parime, or Dorado, between latitudes 2" north 
and 1° 45' south and makes it larger than the Caspian Sea. 
"I have beene assured," writes Raleigh, "by such of the 
Spanyardes as have scene Manoa, the emperiall Citie of 
Guiana, which the Spanyardes cal El Dorado, that for the 
greatnes. for the riches, and for the excellent seate, it farre 
exceedeth any of the world, at least of so much of the world 
as is knoen to the Spanish nation ; it is founded upon a lake 
of salt water 200 leagues long like unto Mare Caspium." 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

samum," that "when they are anoynted all 
ouer, certaine seruants of the Emperor hau- 
ing prepared gold made into fine powder 
blew it thorow hollow canes upon their naked 
bodies untill they be al shining from the 
foote to the head" and that "in this sort they 
sit drinking by twenties and hundreds and 
continue in drunkeness sometimes six and 
seven daies together"? 

Who could refuse to credit the assertions 
of such a keen observer and one who for 
seven months had the freedom of the city 
and had every opportunity for knowing 
whereof he spoke — assertions made by Mar- 
tines in his dying hour, when he could have 
had no reason for untruthfulness or decep- 
tion? And had not the asseverations of 
Martines been fully substantiated by divers 
Spanish letters which had been intercepted 
at sea by Capt. Popham only the year be- 
fore Raleigh's arrival in Guiana? And, fur- 
thermore, did not the various caciques, whom 
169 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

he interrogated as he ascended the Orinoco, 
fully corroborate the information contained 
in these letters as well as the statements of 
Berrio and JVIartines? ISTo, unless one were 
prepared to reject all evidence, of what char- 
acter soever, as utterly untrustworthy, there 
could be no longer any question about the 
existence of Manoa and the priceless treas- 
ures it w^as said to contain. 

These astounding declarations coming 
from so many quarters were accepted by 
Raleigh as indisputable facts and roused 
him to an uncontrollable fever of expect- 
ancy. Toward the south his delighted eyes 
descried the peaks of the sierras of Picatoa 
and Imataca. These eminences enchained 
his fancy, for they looked down upon the 
great city which was the object of his 
quest. 

It was "founded upon a lake of salt water 
two hundred leagues long like unto Mare 
Caspium, and for the greatness, for the 
170 








jProm De Bry 
Anomaia Indians Supplying Raleigh with Provisions 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

riches, and for the excellent seate, it farre 
exceedeth any of the world." 

He was so sure of all this that in his chart 
of Guiana, executed about this time, and 
which is still preserved in the British Mu- 
seum, he gives the exact location of this 
great lake and its rich capital city on its 
eastern shore. 

And that his readers may have an ade- 
quate conception of the riches of Guiana, 
which "hath more abundance of Golde than 
any part of Peru, and as many or more 
great Cities than euer Peru had when it 
flourished most," and realize the magnifi- 
cence of the "emperiall Citie of Guiana," he 
compares it with the court of Huayna Capac 
during the j^almiest days of the Inca dynasty. 

Quoting from Gomara's "Historia Gen- 
eral de las Indias," he writes: 

"All the vessels of his home, table and 
kitchen were of gold and siluer and the 
173 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

meanest of siluer and copper for strength 
and hardiness of the metal. He had in his 
wardroppe hollow statutes of golde which 
seemed giants, and the figures in proportion 
and bignes of all the beasts, birdes, trees, 
and hearbes that the earth bringeth forth; 
and of all the fishes that the sea or the waters 
of his kingdom breedeth. Hee also had 
ropes, budgets, chests, and troughs of golde 
and siluer, heaps of billets of golde that 
seemed woode, marked out to burne. Fi- 
nally there was nothing in his country, 
whereof hee had not the counterfeat in 
gold." ' 

Reveling thus in visions of wealth beyond 
human computation — wealth which he felt 
sure was at last within his grasp — is it mat- 
ter for wonder that the credulous and per- 
fervid adventurer toiled up the impetuous 

^ Cf. "Historia General de las Indias," p. 232, por 
Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Tom. XXII, of the 
"Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles," Madrid (1877). 

174 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

river radiant with delight; that every sign 
was for him a happy omen, and that every 
stone he "stooped to take up promised eyther 
goldaor siluer by his complexion"; that the 
land with which he was finally in touch was 
of a truth "the Magazin of all rich mettels"? 
"There never was," as his countrj^man, Sir 
Frederick Treves, has recently declared, "a 
more romantic river voyage; never a more 
rapturous wild-goose chase. Raleigh was 
infinitely gullible. He believed every word 
the romance-loving Spaniards told him as if 
he had been a gaping schoolboy. He trusted 
Juan JNIartines as a modern traveler trusts 
Baedeker. He gathered inspiration and as- 
surance from any dull-witted Indian who 
nodded *yes' to the unintelligible questions 
of his interpreter." ^ 

Raleigh's venture was as abortive as had 
been all preceding expeditions in quest of El 

^ "The Cradle of the Deep," p. 76, by Sir Frederick 
Treves, London (1908). 

175 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

Dorado, but he would own to no failure. 
After reaching the river Caroni, a tributary 
of the Orinoco, and "sounding" an old In- 
dian chieftain regarding the army of the em- 
peror of Guiana, while some of his "cap- 
taines garoused of his (the chief's) wine till 
they were reasonable pleasant," he concluded 
that it would be unsafe to invade the Inca's 
empire without a much larger force than 
he then had under his command. Besides 
this, he learned that there was a detachment 
of Spanish troops coming against him from 
Caracas and New Granada, and being short 
of ammunition, he judged it the better part 
of valor to rejoin his squadron at Trinidad 
with the least possible delay. 

Shortly afterwards he was back in Eng- 
land, where his reception was far different 
from what he thought it would be on his de- 
parture thence six months before. Then he 
confidently expected to return with his ships 
laden with treasure, and to be restored to the 
176 




The EwAirAXOMAS 

These, says Raleigh, were a nation of people "whose heades 
appeare not above their shouMers. which, though it may be 
thought a meere fable, yet for mine owne parte I am re- 
solved it is true. * * * They are reported to have their eyes 
in their shoulders and their mouths in the middle of their 
breasts, and that a long train of haire groweth backward 
between their shoulders." Shakespeare had apparently read 
Raleigh's work, as is evinced from the following well-known 



The cannibals, that each other eat. 

The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads 

Do grow between their shoulders. 



SIR WALTER RALEICxH 

favor of his Queen by announcing that he 
liad added to her diadem what was thence- 
forth to constitute its most precious jewel — 
the great and beautiful empire of Guiana. 
So far was this from being the case that, not 
counting the great monetary losses incurred 
by his luckless venture, he returned discred- 
ited, a target for criticism, and a butt of con- 
tumely and ridicule. Some went so far as to 
assert that he had never accompanied his 
squadron to Guiana, and that during its ab- 
sence he had been lurking in Cornwall. They 
declared further that the more valuable ores 
which had been brought home to be assayed 
in London were originally "had from Bar- 
bary and were carried to Guiana," while 
only the comparatively w^orthless marcasite, 
w^hich was among the ores submitted to the 
assayer, was a native product of the much 
vaunted land of El Dorado. It was to an- 
sAver these and similar allegations that lie 
179 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

published his famous "Discoverie of Gui- 
ana." 

But notwithstanding the hapless issue of 
his first venture, Raleigh still persisted in 
maintaining Guiana to be a 'magazine of 
all rich metals," and to contain within its 
"boundaries the greatest assurance of good 
ever offered to any Christian princes." He 
insisted in the most solemn manner that he 
had "propovmded no vaine thinge" in this 
report regarding the land of "Manoa the 
Golden." The enterprise in which he had 
embarked he continued to asseverate to be 
"fesible and certayne." ^ 

"I asure my sealf," he writes to Sir Rob- 
ert Cecil, "that ther ar not more diamoundes 
in the East Indies than ar to be founde in 
Guiana." And writing to the Earl of Hol- 
derness regarding a second expedition which 
he was to have depart for Guiana without 
delay, he does not hesitate to declare, "If I 

^Edwards, ut sup.. Vol. II, p. 393. 
180 



r 41f^^«r^7;'^51s;^r^^ 



M<i'^:ii i,Si'ay*,*va-"*? *,. 




^^^fS^'% ^^^^»— 



,4\^^»X 



:11 



^>X 







« . Fro7M Gutl/riedt 

J5TRANGE Customs of the Tinitinas 

Writing of the Tinitinas, who dwell on trees, Raleigh declares 
that uhen their lords die and the flesh has fallen from their 
pones their relatives "take up the carcaise againe and hang 
It in the Cacique's house that died and decke his skull with 
leathers of all colours, and hang all his gold plates ahout the 
bones of his amies, thighes, and legges * * * and do use to 
beat the bones of their lords into powder, and their wives 
and friends drinke it in their severall sorts of drinks." 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

bringe them not" — the members of the 
expedition — "to a mountaine covered with 
golde and sihier oare, let the commander 
have commissione to cut off my head ther." 

Eager, however, as was Raleigh to re- 
visit the land of El Dorado, an interval of 
twenty-one years elapsed between his first 
and second expeditions. Twelve of these 
years were spent in the Towxr of London, 
where he was confined on a charge of treason. 
When he regained his liberty he was sixty- 
three years of age, but his spirit in the face 
of a foredoomed enterprise, tb.e difficulties 
of which were past counting, was as un- 
daunted as ever. 

But it is noteworthy that the object of 
his quest in this second expedition — at least 
so far as concerns his public announcement 
of it — is no longer the conquest of the rich 
land of El Dorado and the possession of 
the famed city of ]Manoa, where "ther ar 
store of gold images of forty-seven hundred 
183 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

weight and worth a hundred thousand 
pounds each," but a certain mine which it 
was reported would "swell all England with 
gold." There is no reason, however, to be- 
lieve that he had lost faith in JNIanoa or El 
Dorado, but he had learned by sad experi- 
ence that his countrymen were disposed to 
regard these as too chimerical for safe busi- 
ness ventures. A gold mine, or, that failing, 
a plate fleet, was something more tangible 
and something that appealed more strongly 
to the money-loving but conservative men 
with whom he now had to deal.^^ 

If this mine proved to be all that Raleigh 
fancied, it would, he reasoned, pave the way 
for the next step — the culmination of his 

^^ It was while talking with Lord Bacon about the 
terms of his commission from King James that Ra- 
leigh made his famous reply to Bacon's question: 
"What will you do^ if after all this expenditure^ you 
miss of the gold mines?" "We shall then look after 
the Plate Fleet, to be sure." "But, then you will be 
pirates." "Ah, who ever heard of men being pirates 
for millions?" 

184 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

life work — the conquest and annexation of 
El Dorado to "the crowne imperiall of the 
Realme of England." Then, the dreamer 
dreamed, one would see the Queen's domin- 
ions "exceedingly enlarged and the realm 
of England inestimably enriched." Then 
would there be in London a "contration 
house of more receipt for Guiana than there 
is nowe in Seville for the West Indies." 
Then would England's ruler be the great- 
est and richest of sovereigns. Then would 
the Spaniards cease to "threaten us with 
any more invincible Armadas," and then, 
finally, would Raleigh himself, firmly seated 
on the throne of the Inca of JNIanoa, as gov- 
ernor general of the great empire of Gui- 
ana, be in a position to defy the Spaniard — 
that arch enemy of his country — and Eng- 
land would thenceforward be "unresistable 
both on land and on sea." 

It is beside my purpose to follow Raleigh 
in his last ill-starred venture; to tell how 
185 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

"evil chance brooded over the expedition 
from the outset"; how dire calamities fell 
thickly upon the tempest-tossed, plague- 
stricken adventurers as they approached the 
shores of Guiana; how the indomitable 
leader, prostrate with fever, saw his strength 
ebb from him ; how, after the death of his 
idolized son, he was obliged to abandon the 
scheme of his life's imagining; and how, in- 
stead of witnessing the fulfillment of a long- 
cherished dream, he was forced to acknowl- 
edge the complete frustration of all his 
hopes ; how, in face of the tragic issue of the 
enterprise on which he had staked fortune, 
reputation, life, he was on the verge of dying 
of a broken heart; ^^ how he returned to 

^^ In a letter to his wife, in which he informs her 
of their son's tragic death, he writes as follows: "I 
protest before the ]Majestie of God that as Sir Francis 
Drake and Sir John Hawkins died hartbroken "vvhen 
they failed of their enterprise, I could willingly doe 
the like did I not contend against sorrowe for your 
sake in hope to provide somewhat for you, and to com- 

186 




Map of Gliaxa cy Tiieodor de Bry. I.IOQ 

This map is of special interest, as it exliibits many of the places 
mentioned by Raleigh in his "Discoverie of Guiana," espe- 
cially Manoa, Parime, and the region occupied by the head- 
less men. 

I. Amapaia ; rich in gold. The water of this region is good at 
midday, but in the evening, and especially at midnight, it 
is very poisonous. II. Iwaipanoma. In this locality, accord- 
ing to Raleigh, live people without heads. III. Iwarawakeri. 
These mountains are rich in gold. The sands of the rivers 
flowing into Lake Cassipa also carry much gold. IV. Manoa 
or Dorado. This is considered to be the largest city in the 
entire world. V. Lake Parime. It is 200 miles long, has salt 
water, and there are many islands in it. VI. Region occupied 
by the women called Amazons. VII. Arwackas. Friends of 
the Spaniards. VIII. The people living on the Essekebe River 
can go by boat from the mouth of the river to within a day's 
journey "^of Lake Parime. IX-X. A headless man and an 
Amazon. 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH 

London to face the opprobrium which his 
faikire entailed; how, charged with piracy, 
his long and tumultuous career was, at the 
instance of Gondomar, the Spanish ambas- 
sador, finally brought to an ignominious 
close under the headsman's ax in Old Pal- 
ace yard. 

"Poor self -befooled Raleigh," writes Sir 
Frederick Treves, "he left more gold in this 
miserable country than he ever brought 
away from it, for he gave to any loquacious 
chief who would listen to his babblings an 
honest English sovereign — a piece of 'the 
new money, of twenty shillings, with Her 
Majesty's picture.' It would have indeed 
been well for the gallant dreamer if he had 
left Guiana forever to the sun." ^^ 

fort and relieve you." (Edwards^ Op. cit.. Vol. II, 
p. 360. 

12 Op. cit. p. 77. 



CHAPTER IX 

PERSISTENCE OF BELIEF IN EL DORADO 

Raleigh's ill-fated expedition of 1617 
was the last of the great ventures in quest 
of El Dorado. The expeditions that were 
subsequently fitted out — and there were 
many of them — were of minor importance 
and attracted but little attention. But like 
all preceding attempts they, too, issued in 
failure or catastrophe. 

Yet, notwithstanding the long record of 
adventures and disasters, which extended 
through more than a century, men still con- 
tinued to believe in INIanoa and Lake Parime 
and El Dorado as firmly as. ever. Raleigh, 
in his map executed about 1595, had fixed 
the location of the capital of the Gilded 
Prince on the eastern shore of Lake Manoa, 
and subsequent cosmographers kept it on 
190 



BELIEF IN EL DORADO 

their maps for more than two hundred years. 
In his map of 1599, which is adorned with 
figures of a giant Amazon and of one of the 
headless men described by Raleigh, De Bry 
places Manoa on the north of Lake Parime 
— Raleigh had located it on the east — with 
the interesting caption: Manoa oder Dorado^ 
dise wirdt geaclit fur di groste Stadt in der 
ganzen welt — (Manoa or Dorado regarded 
as the largest city in the entire world ) . De 
Laet, in his map of 1630, moves Manoa or 
El Dorado to the west end of the lake just 
opposite the position assigned it by Raleigh. 
Blaeuw, in his maps of 1640-1667, follows 
de Laet, as does also Sanson in 16.50 and 
1656. In Surville's map of 1778, Lake Pa- 
rime, in addition to the designation by which 
it had been so long known, bears a new 
name. Mar Eldorado, the golden sea. Even 
as late as 1806, after Humboldt had proved 
that the lake, about which so much had been 
imagined and written, was only a myth, we 
193 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

find it still on the map of Depons with a 
distinct indication of the city of El Dorado, 
Raleigh's "rich and magnificent" city of 
Manoa^. And yet more. So late as 1844 a 
work entitled "El Dorado" was published 
in New York by a Mr. Van Heuvel, who 
had visited the coast region of Guiana, in 
which he contends that Humboldt had ef- 
faced the wondrous lake without sufficient 
grounds. In the map illustrating his bo3k. 
Lake Parime, under the name of the White 
Sea of the Manoas, still figures as promi- 
nently as ever and in the exact location as- 
signed it by Raleigh two and a half cen- 
turies before. 

Nor is this all. Even today, in parts of 
Venezuela and Colombia, the belief still pre- 
vails that somewhere, in the vast and unex- 
plored region between the Orinoco and the 
Amazon, one may yet find the ruins of the 
famed city of El Dorado, and that there is 
still waiting there under the debris of crum- 
194 



BELIEF IX EL DORADO 

bled palaces treasures as great as any ever 
found in the huacas of Peru and New Gra- 
nada. 

A similar belief likewise obtains in certain 
parts of Peru and Bolivia regarding the 
former existence of a rich city and empire 
somewhere in the forest region to the east 
of the Andes and to the south of the Ama- 
zon. This imaginary empire, which was 
supposed to be greater even than that of 
the Incas on the Andean plateau, was, ac- 
cording to tradition, founded by a younger 
brother of Atahualpa after the conquest of 
the Children of the Sun by Francisco Pi- 
zarro. He was known by various names, 
sometimes being called Enim or Great Paru, 
at others the Gran JMoxo or Great Paytiti. 
It was reported in Lima, by one who de- 
clared that he had been in the capital of this 
mighty empire, that no fewer than three 
thousand artisans were employed in the 

Street of the Silversmiths, and that in the 
197 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

neighborhood of this marvelous city there 
was a hill of silver and another of gold. The 
columns of the palace, it was averred, were 
of alabaster and porphyry, the galleries of 
cedar and ebony, while the throne was of 
ivory, and was reached by steps of gold. 

When Martin del Barco Centenera, about 
the time of Raleigh's expedition to Guiana, 
was writing his metrical chronicle, "La Ar- 
gentina," in which he records the events of 
the conquests of the regions bordering the 
Rio de la Plata, a report was circulated in 
Paraguay that the capital of the Gran JNIoxo 
had actually been discovered. Don JNlartin 
gives the information as authentic and ex- 
presses his regret that Cabeza de Yaca, the 
first explorer of the Paraguay, had not pro- 
ceeded farther up the river. For, if he 
had, the poet-chronicler asserts, he certainly 
would have been the fortunate discoverer of 
the capital of the Gran ^loxo, whose palace 
stood on an island in a lake. In richness 
198 



BELIEF IN EL DORADO 

and magnificence this city, it was declared, 
eclipsed an}i:hing narrated of the splendors 
of JMexico or Cuzco and could be compared 
only with some of the fabled cities of Pal- 
merian romance or Oriental story. "It was," 
we are informed, "built of white stone. At 
the entrance were two towers and between 
them a column five and twenty feet in 
height. On its top was a large silver moon, 
and two living lions were fastened to its base 
with chains of gold. Having passed these 
guardians one came into a quadrangle 
planted with trees and watered by a silver 
fountain, which spouted through four golden 
pipes. The gate of the palace was of cop- 
per. It was very small and its bolt was re- 
ceived in the solid rock. Within, a golden 
sun was placed upon an altar of silver, and 
four lamps were kept burning before it day 
and night." ^ 

^ "La Argentina/' Cap. V^ Buenos Aires (1836). 
In Vol. V of "Coleccion de Obras y Documentos 

199 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

Even today, I was frequently assured 
while traveling in the tablelands of south- 
ern Peru, the descendants of the people for- 
merly ruled over by the Gran Moxo still 
survive in large numbers and are said to pos- 
sess fabulous wealth in hidden stores and 
precious stones. They occasionally, I was 
told, visit some of the towns on the plateau, 
but they are always secretive about every- 
thing and are quite unwilling to give any in- 
formation whatever respecting their manner 
of life or place of abode. 

Relatives a la Historia Antigua y Moderna de las 
Provincias del Rio de la Plata." Cf. the aiillior's 
"South America's Southland," pp. 446-448. 



CHAPTER X 

REASONS FOR THE PERSISTENCE OF BE- 
LIEF IN EL DORADO 

It would be difficult to name any other 
myth that has had a stronger hold on man- 
kind or one that has been more remarkable 
for its longevity than that of El Dorado. 
Notwithstanding the countless disasters to 
which it lured so many thousand people of 
divers nations, notwithstanding that every 
expedition was an absolute failure, and that 
the last adventurer never got any nearer the 
object of his quest than did Belalcazar or 
Orellana, the fortune-hunter was not disen- 
chanted. The spell of El Dorado was over 
Spaniard and Gernian and Englishman 
alike, and, although it was as unattainable 
as the flitting rainbow, they, nevertheless, 
continued for generations its eager pursuit. 
201 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

Belalcazar sought for it on the plateau of 
Cundinamarca, Pizarro and Orellana in the 
forests of Canela and along the banks of the 
Amazon. The Quesadas searched for it in 
the eastern declivities of the Andes, and, not 
finding it there, continued their pursuit of it 
in the dark recesses of the dense tropical jun- 
gles between the Meta and the Caqueta. To 
secure so great a prize Yon Hutten, JNIartin 
de Proveda and Pedro de Silva wandered 
over the llanos of Venezuela and New Gra- 
nada and struggled through the intermi- 
nable wilds that intervene between Chacha- 
poyas and the Caribbean. Ursua and 
Aguirre and Antonio de Berrio in their 
quest of the same chimera crossed the con- 
tinent from west to east, and braved count- 
less tribes of hostile aborigines. But their 
fate was the same as that of their disen- 
chanted predecessors. For, after untold 
hardships and the performance of fabulous 
feats of valor, they were, at the end of their 
202 



REASONS FOR BELIEF 

long and arduous journeys, no nearer the 
objects of their quest than when they first 
embarked in their fantastic and soul-stirring 
enterprises. 

No difficulty deterred them, no danger, 
however great, appalled them. Snowclad 
mountains, sunburnt plains, pestilential 
morasses, treacherous rivers, drenching rains 
that "penetrated to their souls," famine, 
poisoned arrows, imminent death of the most 
horrible kind, had no terrors for those ex- 
traordinary adventurers who knew not fear 
and who continued to march and fight even 
to their last breath, or, as an old chronicler 
has it, con el alma en los dientes — with their 
souls between their teeth. Not finding El 
Dorado on the tablelands of the JNIuiscas, 
where they were led to believe he resided, 
they followed the indications of the next idle 
rumor and sought him among the distant 
Omaguas in the valleys of the Caqueta and 
the Putumayo. They pushed their way 
203 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

time and again through the length and the 
breadth of the inhospitable montaha from 
Lake Maracaibo to the lower rapids of the 
Huallaga, and explored the tributaries of 
the Amazon and the Orinoco from the An- 
des to the Rio Negro and the Caroni, and 
still no Gilded King, no palaces of gold, no 
precious stones. Never since their time has 
this part of South America been so thor- 
oughly explored and never has every nook 
and corner of it been so minutely scruti- 
nized. 

But the golden, man-devouring phantom 
"whose maw was never satiated with the 
souls of heroes"; the phantom, "so possible, 
so probable to imaginations which were yet 
reeling before the actual and veritable prodi- 
gies of Peru, Mexico, and the East Indies," 
still lured them on from one part of the 
continent to another. The failure of expe- 
dition after expedition, the tragic death of 
thousands, with their whitened bones strewn 
204 




From Theodor de Bry's "Collectiones Perigrinationum in Indian Orientalem 

Occidentalem" 



Some of the Strange Animals of the New World 



REASOXS FOR BELIEF 

over mountain and plain, never served as a 
warning against new ventures, and never 
called a halt to the wanton sacrifice of life 
to the gilded JNIinotaur. It is, therefore, not 
surprising that many people thought of 
those who took part in these enterprises what 
Oviedo, describing the hardships of the earli- 
est voyage up the INIeta, writes of Alonso de 
Herrera and his companions, "I do not be- 
lieve that any of those who took part in this 
expedition would have taken so much trou- 
ble to get into Paradise." 

There was at the time of the conquest of 
Peru a tradition current that one of the 
younger brothers of the Inca had, with a 
large army, carrying with it untold treas- 
ures, fled to the region to the east of the 
Andes and taken possession of a vast terri- 
tory somewhere between the Amazon and 
the Orinoco. The fortune-hunters accepted 
without question the truth of this tradition, 
and failure to locate the object of their 
207 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

quest on the uplands of New Granada or 
in the lowlands at the foot of the eastern 
Cordilleras, far from indicating that they 
were pursuing a chimera, simply proved 
that they had to seek the self -expatriated In- 
,cas farther eastward. Thus it was that they 
suddenly changed their field of operations 
from the mythical Dorado of the Omaguas 
to the equally mythical Dorado of Parime, 
nearlj^ a thousand miles nearer the rising 
sun. The region surrounding Raleigh's im- 
aginary lake was still wholly unknown and 
here, then, near the headwaters of the Ca- 
roni, it was confidently asserted, the long 
and eagerly sought king of the Golden City 
was at last to be found. Even as late as 
1775 the governor of Spanish Guiana was 
induced to send an expedition in the direc- 
tion of the reputed Lake Parime in quest 
of El Dorado. Of this expedition only one 
man, Don Antonio Solis, returned alive. He 
is interesting as being probably the last 
208 



REASONS FOR BELIEF 

member of an expedition sent out imder gov- 
ernment auspices, nearly two and a half cen- 
turies after the story of El Dorado was first 
given currency by the roving Indian at Lat- 
acunga on the plain of Quito, a story which, 
according to Southey in his "History of 
Brazil," "cost Spain a greater expense of 
life and treasure than all her conquests in 
the New World." ^ 

We smile at what we are pleased to con- 
sider the folly of those who went in pursuit 
of that which to us was a mere will-o'-the- 
wisp, and are disposed to characterize them 
as Hume, in his "History of England," does 
Raleigh — as "capable of the most extrava- 
gant credulity or the most impudent impos- 
ture" — as visionaries who were "extremely 
defective either in solid understanding or 
morals, or both," ^ 

And, as we read of "the countless expe- 

2 Vol. I, p. 393, London (1822). 

3 Vol. IV, pp. 533-534, Boston (1854). 

209 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

ditions of the Spaniards in pursuit of a 
phantom, we are incHned to regard them as 
a nation of fantastic adventurers of the type 
of Don Quixote. But we forget that they 
were confronted with a world of marvels 
where nothing was considered impossible. 
The reports which had reached them con- 
cerning El Dorado seemed more reliable 
than were those which led Columbus to the 
discovery of the New World. In that age 
of illusions, in which many things had been 
realized that before had been deemed impos- 
sible, the unbridled imagination wandered 
in an interminable region of chimeras; and, 
in the midst of privations and dangers, men 
sustained themselves on that which most har- 
monized with their ideas, or most flattered 
their hopes. The unexpected spectacle of 
the vast treasures found in the temples and 
palaces of the Incas inflamed the desires and 
perverted the judgment of those lucky ad- 
venturers, who, not content with the rich 
210 




Facsimile signature of Friar Gaspar Carvajal 



REASONS FOR BELIEF 

fruits of their victories, promised themselves 
to multiply them by extending the sphere of 
their conquests." * 

And we forget, also, that at the time when 
Belalcazar and Orellana, Von Hutten, and 
the Quesadas went in quest of El Dorado 
only a small part of the New World had 
been explored. And yet in this small part 
two rich and powerful empires had been dis- 
covered. We forget that Cortes and Pizarro, 
following the slight indications afforded by 
small quantities of gold in the possession of 
savages on the coast, were led to engage in 
those famous enterprises which made them 
masters of the great empires of the INIonte- 
zumas and of the Children of the Sun. 

And what more natural than to suppose 
that in the unexplored portions of the West- 
ern Hemisphere there were similar, possibly 
even greater, empires? If a second Mexico 

^ See the author's "Through South America's South- 
land/' p. 360. 

213 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

had been discovered in the territory of the 
Omagiias or a second Peru had been found 
in the region surrounding Lake Parime, 
what matter would there have been to the El 
Doradoist for surprise? IS^one whatever. 
Even we of today would applaud the wis- 
dom of those whose persistence in following 
the indications at hand was ultimately re- 
warded with success. For nothing was as- 
serted of ^lanoa and the capital of the 
Omaguas which had not been proved to be 
true of ^lexico and Cuzco or which had not 
been witnessed by "the corporal and mortal 
eyes" of many of the adventurers who took 
part in the earlier expeditions in search of El 
Dorado. 

Mexico was located in the center of a lake. 
Why not Manoa ? The religion of the ^luis- 
cas was connected with a sacred lake. Why 
not that of JNIanoa? It was avouched that 
the greater part of the vast treasure of the 
Incas had been secreted by the priests of 
214 



REASONS FOR BELIEF 

Peru and that many members of the blood 
royal had sought refuge beyond the Andes, 
and what more reasonable than to suppose 
that a remnant of the treasure of the great 
Inca dynasty was still in existence? 

No, we have no reason to plume ourselves 
on our superior knowledge, when this knowl- 
edge has been acquired at the expense and 
the labor of those whom we are now wont to 
regard as phantom-chasers or the self -de- 
luded A^ictims of a credulous fancy. Had 
we lived in their day "we should have be- 
longed either to the many wise men who be- 
lieved as they did, or to the many foolish 
men who not only sneered at the story of El 
Dorado but at a hundred other stories which 
we now know to be true." 



CHAPTER XI 

MODERN DORADOISTS 

It is often asserted that the story of El 
Dorado was devised by the wily Indians as 
a means of getting rid of the Spanish in- 
vaders or to lure them to the lands of other 
tribes with whom they were at war. 

"It is true," as I have written elsewhere/ 
"that the lust of gold often made the Span- 
iards the dupes of the Indians who, in or- 
der to get rid of their unwelcome guests, re- 
galed them with stories of powerful cities 
and exhaustless supplies of the precious 
metals in the depths of the tropical forests 
and in lands far distant from their own. It 
was thus that they sent the Spaniards on a 

^ "Through South America's Southland/' pp. 361 
and 362. New York (191 6). 

216 



MODERN DORADOISTS 

wild-goose chase after the Gran Quivira, a 
flourishing empire in Xew Mexico, which, 
it was averred, had been established there by 
one of the heirs of Montezuma. It was thus 
that they started hosts of adventurers in 
search of the Gran Paytiti, somewhere be- 
tween Peru and Brazil, where, it was said, 
the Incas, with a large number of followers 
and untold treasures, had fled after the con- 
quest of Cuzco by Pizarro. It was thus, too, 
that they were able to trick the most distin- 
guished of the Conquistadores into organiz- 
ing expedition after expedition to scour the 
whole continent from the Pacific to the At- 
lantic and from the Amazon to the Carib- 
bean in search of the mythical El Dorado. 
This illusory being of fancy was at first de- 
clared by the Indians to be a Gilded Man, 
but in the course of years, was, in the imagi- 
nations of the eager and credulous Spanish, 
transformed into a city and then into a coun- 
217 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

try whose treasures of gold were beyond the 
dreams of oriental fable." 

But even granting that many, if not most 
of the Doradoists were the dupes of lying 
Indians whose tales respecting the Gilded 
]Man "should never have been given the 
slightest credence, we must remember that it 
was the assertion of an Indian which enabled 
Balboa to make his epochal discovery of the 
great South Sea. It was an Indian who told 
Pizarro of the vast nation of the Incas and 
of the fabulous treasures of Cuzco. It was 
information furnished by Indians, regarding 
the wealth of the Aztecs and the Muiscas, 
that guided Cortes to the rich capital of 
Montezuma, and Quesada to the opulent 
plateau of Cundinamarca." ^ 

Again, it is said that the Spaniard, igno- 
rant of the language of the aborigines, was 
led to look for gold where the Indian had 
told him there was red earth. Or it is averred 

2 Op. cit., p. 361. 

218 



MODERX DORADOISTS 

that the Indian was hmiself deceived and 
promised the European immense deposits of 
the precious metals where there was nothing 
but mica-schist or sulphides of iron and cop- 
per. Or, still again, it is declared that the 
extraordinary episode of South American 
history known as the quest of El Dorado is 
an instance of one of those mysterious aber- 
rations of the human mind whose origin and 
continuance can be explained only by an 
expert in the psychology of history. 

We need not, however, seek for any such 
recondite reasons for the explanation of the 
facts which have been the subject matter of 
the preceding pages. Fortune-seekers and 
adventurers in search of wealth to be secured 
without slow and monotonous toil have ever 
existed in the world and are in it still, en- 
gaged in schemes different only in name 
from that which so captivated the minds of 
men two and three centuries ago. And they, 
too — all of them— have their Dorado which 
219 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

occasions the same feverish activity, the 
same intense excitement, the same eager 
desire to achieve fame and fortune as 
characterized the Conquistadores in their fa- 
mous expeditions in quest of the Gilded 
King. 

Sixty years ago it was in California, 
then known as the El Dorado of the West, 
and thither thousands flocked from all parts 
of the world in search of the same glittering 
metal that constituted such a lure for the 
Spaniards three centuries before. Later on. 
El Dorado was transferred to the frozen 
strands of the Yukon, and icebound Alaska 
witnessed a great army of passionate gold- 
hunters, much the same as those which long 
generations ago had pushed their way 
through the steaming jungles between the 
Orinoco and the Amazon. Again, El Do- 
rado was in the veldt of southern Africa, 
where the Gilded JNIan — or was it the Golden 
Calf? — appeared under the form of the rich 
220 



MODERN DORADOISTS 

gold nuggets of the Rand or of the spar- 
kling gems of Kimberley. For others still, 
El Dorado is Wall Street or the Paris 
Bourse or Monte Carlo — any place where 
the acquisition of wealth is accompanied by 
the impelling stimulus of hazard and excite- 
ment. 

Thus it is that El Dorado, who was 
originally a Gilded Chieftain on the plateavi 
of New Granada or in the forest lakes of 
the Omaguas, or in the golden palace of 
Lake Parime, has become a mere synonym 
for any region or any enterprise that 
presents opportunities for easily acquired 
wealth. And thus, in its last analysis, we 
have all the history and all the psychology 
that are required to explain what to many 
has ever been an enigma — the strange fasci- 
nation, for thousands, of that extraordinary 
ignis fatuus which has given us the most in- 
teresting and the most romantic episode in 
the conquest of tropical America. 
221 



THE QUEST OE EL DORADO 

^Miether considered as an Indian cliief- 
tain. a city of vast riches, a land of imtold 
treasures luring countless brave men to an 
untimely death. El Dorado could, in the 
words of Adolph Rette, truthfully declare: 

Jc suU VlUu-s'wn^ lu Crainte, Ju Chimere; 
Je suh la region ou regnent le: fantomes. 

It cajinot, of course, be denied that liidden 
treasure has, in all ages, possessed a pecuhar 
and mysterious attraction not afforded by 
mine prospecting or stock speculating and 
that its very elusiveness has but enhanced 
tlie zest of the seeker of fortune. Eor even 
today the most staid representatives of our 
unromantic civilization are thrilled by the 
mere mention of the discovery of a pot of 
gold coin or of the reported location, by a 
Xew England fisherman or a Xew Jersey 
yokel, of one of Captain Kidd's long-buried 
chests filled with pieces of eight. 

Who has not heard of the efforts that 



MODERX DORADOISTS 

have been made to find the tomb of Alaric 
the Goth, which is reputed to hold the ac- 
cumulated treasure of Rome; to locate the 
cave in which Attila the Hun is said to have 
stored the loot which he gathered from the 
richest countries of Europe; to discover the 
untold wealth buried with Genseric the Van- 
dal, after he had sacked the most opulent 
pro\Tnces of Italy f ^Mio has not read of 
the attempts, dating from the time of the 
Spanish conquest, to drain Lake Urcos in 
Peru, and Lake Guativita in Colombia, 
where it is still asserted and confidently be- 
lieved that there are countless millions of 
Inca and IMuisca treasure in the form of 
gold and precious stones i WTio is ignorant 
of the numberless expeditions that have, for 
centuries past, been fitted out to recover the 
treasure of sunken galleons among the 
islands of the West Indies or along the coast 
of the Spanish ^lain.^ Who is not aware 
of the frantic search that has been made. 
223 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

times without number, to secure the amassed 
treasures, estimated at $19,000,000, which 
are buried in the httle island of Cocos, off 
the coast of Costa Rica; to get possession 
of the vast stores of gold in the ships sunk 
by Sir Francis Drake in the harbor of San 
Miguel, among the Azores, or in the hold of 
the treasure ship of the Spanish Armada, 
which went down in the harbor of Tober- 
mory in Scotland and which, almost from 
that day to the present, has been an object 
of search by the treasure-mad mortals who 
have brought to their assistance evevy device 
from a simple diving outfit to the latest de- 
sign of suction dredge? Who has not been 
impressed by the story of the tragic fate of 
the English frigate La JLutrine, which, over 
a century ago, was wrecked near the en- 
trance to the Zuyder Zee, with more than 
£1,000,000 aboard, and which since the dis- 
aster has engaged and still engages the best 
engineering skill of the London Lloyds, who 
224 



MODERN DORADOISTS 

have never ceased to regard the sunken treas- 
ure ship as a possible asset? And who has 
not been thrilled by the still more tragic and 
romantic story of the destruction, in 1702, 
in Vigo Bay, of the magnificent Spanish 
plate fleet, "The richest fl3ta that ever came 
to Europe," with its cargo of gold ingots 
and silver bars, its fabulous hoards of ducats, 
doubloons, and pieces of eight, valued at 
more than $100,000,000, a treasure for 
w^hose recovery the Spanish nation and pri- 
vate corporations have for more than two 
centuries labored and still labor as assidu- 
ously and as hopefully as ever did the for- 
tune-hunters of long years ago labor for the 
location of the ever-elusive El Dorado? 

Even as I write these lines it is announced 
that the professor of archaeology in one of 
our leading universities is preparing to go to 
Asia Minor to dig beneath the ruins of Sar- 
dis for the long-lost treasures of King Croe- 
sus, who was reputed to be the richest man 
225 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

of antiquity and whose name has for ages 
been synonjTuous with great wealth. The 
professor in question has akeady, in a pre- 
hminary exploration, unearthed many valu- 
able objects in the former capital of the 
famed Lydian monarch. Among them are 
gold rings and bracelets and beautiful cups 
and intaglios of crystal and carnelian. 

Among the vast treasures which the an- 
cient plutocrat of Asia Minor was said to 
possess were countless statues — all of solid 
gold — of gods and heroes, which adorned 
his beautiful capital. They recall the statues 
of gold which Von Hutten and his compan- 
ions reported as actually existing in the capi- 
tal of the Omaguas — statues and stores of 
gold like those which Sir Walter Raleigh 
was sure were to be found in the magnifi- 
cent capital of Manoa. 

The surface of the soil on which the old 
Lydian capital was built has, we are assured, 
been merely scratched, and "there is every 
226 



MODERN DORADOISTS 

reason to believe that deep beneath the site of 
ancient Sardis lie stupendous hidden treas- 
ures of wrought gold such as explorers never 
found before, exceeding by far the vast 
wealth which Schliemann actually unearthed 
in the ruins of Troy" — wealth which greatly 
surpasses in amount the treasures which 
greeted the delighted eyes of the Spanish 
Conquistadores in the palaces of Cuzco and 
in the treasure chambers of the Great Chimu. 
There is a Scotch legend of one Donald 
Claflin who rows along the rock-girt Cale- 
donian coast, always seeking, never finding, 
the gold that lies in the graves of pagan 
chiefs and kings. This legend tells the tale 
of the treasure-hunter and epitomizes all 
that might be said about those wondrous ex- 
peditions that went in quest of El Dorado. 
The romance of the gold hunt is something 
that thrills even the most sedate and most 
matter-of-fact of men. Goethe's words — 
227 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

Nacli GoJde clrdnkt. 
Am Golde hdngt 

Doch Alles — 

may be adduced to show the potency of gold 
as a factor in human endeavor, but they only 
partially disclose the mainspring that im- 
pelled the Conquistadores — those extraordi- 
nary men "limitless in desire, limitless in in- 
dustry, limitless in will" — to essay what we 
now know was as unfeasible as an attempt to 
ascend to the sun or the stars. 

And, be it remembered, it was not solely 
the lust of gold for its own sake, which, in 
days gone by, sent the blood surging through 
the veins of the apathetic and worldly-wise 
Germans and Englishmen, as well as of the 
sentimental and romantic Spaniards, and 
led them to adventure fortune, health, and 
life in the most hazardous enterprises; but, 
over and above the desire of wealth, there 
was that seductive spirit of romance, as re- 
vealed in the "Palmerin de Oliva" and 
228 




.r 



)aJ^Cai'0(^. 



M.q/L^ 



Facsimile Signature of Friar Gaspau Carvajal, Historian 
OF Orellana's Great Voyage of Discovery 




Facsimile Signature of Francisco de Orellana 



MODERN DORADOISTS 

"Amadis of Gaul" — that love of glory, 
which so dominated the Spaniards of the 
conquest from the proudest adelantado of 
noblest birth to the lowest soldier of hum- 
blest origin. 

But unlike our present seekers after 
buried treasures, the adventurers who went 
in quest of El Dorado, even though they 
failed in achieving the purpose which they 
had in view, contributed greatly to the ad- 
vancement of geographic knowledge and to 
the progress of civilization. The region 
bounded by the Orinoco and the Amazon, 
the Andes, and the Rio Negro, has never 
since the conquest been so carefully explored 
as it was by the men who went in search of 
the Gilded King and the golden capital of 
the Omaguas. They traversed time and 
again many broad stretches of territory that 
have never since their time been visited by 
a single European. Like the old alchem- 
ists, who failed in their quest of the philoso- 
231 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

pher's stone, but who by their experiments 
paved the way for the science of modern 
chemistry, the treasure-seeking adventurers, 
who so thoroughly examined the northern 
half of the South American continent, acted 
as the advance guard of civilization in a re- 
gion that would otherwise have remained a 
teJTa incognita until our own day, as did 
vast areas to the south of the Amazon which 
were left untraversed by the white man un- 
til visited by explorers still living. They 
opened up to the colonist and the missionary 
the broad savannas and woodlands of the 
east of the great Andean chain and were 
thus indirectly instrumental in establishing 
those flourishing missions which, for genera- 
tions, exerted so beneficent an influence in 
civilizing and Christianizing the aborigines 
that they commanded the admiration of the 
world. 

And yet more. If we still have some 
knowledge of the manners and customs of 
232 



MODERX DORADOISTS 

certain of the Indian races, now extinct, 
that formerly inhabited the vast territory 
drained bj^ the Amazon, the Orinoco, and 
their tributaries ; if we can still form a true 
mental picture of the conditions of the north- 
ern half of South America, as it was at the 
time of the Conquest, it is, thanks to those 
who spent so many years, at the cost of so 
much life and treasure, in the pursuit of that 
strange golden phantom, which, under the 
guise of a gilded king, a golden city, a coun- 
try rich in precious metals, a lake with an 
aureate strand, lured on generation after 
generation of eager, resolute adventurers, 
and which, whether king or city, country or 
lake, holds its place in history under the 
name of El Dorado. 



APPENDIX 

The account of the fortuitous meeting 
of the three distinguished Conquistadores, 
Gonsalo Ximenes de Quesada, Nicholas 
Federmann and Sebastian de Belalcazar, is 
so remarkable that it reads like a chapter 
from the "Arabian Nights." All three of 
these gallant adventurers were, like so many 
of their contemporaries, ardent and inde- 
fatigable treasure hunters. 

Federmann, before his singular rencounter 
with his Spanish rivals, had been vainly 
seeking the fabulous Casa del Sol — House 
of the Sun — which was said to be located 
somewhere east of the Andes — presumably 
in the valley of the ]\Ieta — and which, ac- 
cording to a report then current, was a store- 
house of immense treasures of gold and pre- 
cious stones. 

235 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

Quesada, who, like his illustrious country- 
man, Hernando Cortes, was a man of 
marked literary attainments as well as a suc- 
cessful commander, had just completed the 
conquest of the Chibchas and had taken pos- 
session of all the treasures which he had 
found in their temples and elsewhere. And 
like the diplomatic and chivalrous Anda- 
lusian, Belalcazar, who had just arrived 
from distant Quito, in search of El Dorado, 
Quesada, too, although at a later period, was 
destined to win renown, if not fortune, as 
one of the most famous of the long list of 
those intrepid men who risked their all in 
the futile pursuit of the Gilded King. 

So interesting and illuminating a side- 
light do the characters and motives, jeal- 
ousies and ambitions, hardships, achieve- 
ments and disappointments of these three 
eminent Conquist adores, whom the lust of 
gold and conquest had so strangely brought 
together on the plain of Bogota, throw on 
236 



APPENDIX 

the whole^history of the quest of El Dorado, 
that I here reproduce, by way of appendix, 
what I have written on the subject in my 
"Up the Orinoco and Down the INIagda- 

lena." ' 

"Quesada had left Santa Marta in 1536, 
having under his command, according to 
Oviedo, eight hundred men and one hun- 
dred horses. He went part of the way by 
land and part by the Rio Grande, now 
known as the JNIagdalena. After reaching 
the Opon, he followed that river as far as 
it was navigable, and eventually made his 
way to the plateau of Bogota— the land of 
the Chibchas. 

"His march was, in some respects, the 
most difficult and remarkable in the annals 
of the Conquest. He had to contend against 
relentless savages, dismal swamps and almost 
impenetrable forests, where he had to cut 
his way through the tangled vines and 

1 Chap. X, p. 294-299. 

237 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

bushes and where it was often impossible to 
make more than a league a day. His men 
were decimated by disease and starvation. 
When he at last arrived at the Valle de 
Alcazares, near the present site of Bogota, 
he could count but one hundred infantry and 
sixty cavalry. But with this handful of 
men he had conquered the Chibcha nation, 
numbering, according to the old chroniclers, 
one million people and having twenty thou- 
sand soldiers in the field. Scarcely, how- 
ever, was his campaign against the aborig- 
ines successfully terminated, when informa- 
tion was conveyed him of a new danger in 
the person of a German competitor, who had 
just arrived from the llanos. 

"Five years previously, Federmann, in 
the service of the Welsers, had left Coro in 
Venezuela, with four hundred well-armed 
and well-provisioned men. After wander- 
ing over trackless plains and through dark 
and almost impenetrable forests, enduring 
238 



APPENDIX 

frightful hardships of all kinds, he finally 
got word of the Chibchas and of their treas- 
ures of gold and precious stones. He forth- 
with changed his route and crossed the east- 
ern Cordilleras, where the traveler Andre 
assures us it is now absolutely impossible to 
pass. 

"Thus, almost before Quesada was aware 
that Federmann was in the country, he was 
constrained by policy to receive him and his 
one hundred ragged and famished followers 
— these were all that remained of his gallant 
band — as his guests. The Spanish Conquis- 
tador knew that the German leader would 
put in a claim for a part of the territory 
that they had both been exploring, and 
which, until then, each of them had regarded 
as his own by right of conquest. He was 
then naturally eager to effect a settlement 
with his competitor on the best terms pos- 
sible and get him out of the country with the 
least possible delay. Federmann agreed to 
239 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

renounce all his claims in consideration of 
his receiving himself the sum of ten thou- 
sand pesos and of having his soldiers enjoy 
all the rights of discoverers and Conquista- 
dores accorded to those of Quesada. 

"Scarcely, however, had these negotiations 
been happily terminated when another and 
a more formidable rival appeared on the 
scene, on his way from the distant South. 
This was Sebastian de Belalcazar, the fa- 
mous lieutenant of Francisco Pizarro. He 
was then governor of Quito and the con- 
queror of much of the territory now included 
in Ecuador and southern Columbia. Hear- 
ing casually of El Dorado and of the mar- 
velous riches this ruler was reputed to pos- 
sess, the Spanish chieftain lost no time in or- 
ganizing an expedition to the country of 
gold and emeralds, of fertile plains and de- 
lightful valleys. Setting out with the as- 
surance of an early and easy victory, and 
of soon becoming the possessors of untold 
240 



APPENDIX 

wealth and all the enjoyment that wealth 
could command, the soldiers, in quest of El 
Dorado, exclaimed with unrestrained enthu- 
siasm : 

" 'Nuestros sean su oro y sus placeres, 
Gocemos de ese campo y ese sol.' ^ 

"But anticipation is not fruition. This 
the Spaniard soon learned to his sorrow. 
Like Quesada and Federmann and their fol- 
lowers, Belalcazar and his men had to endure 
frightful hardships during the long and 
painful march of many months from Quito 
to the plateau of Bogota. According to Cas- 
tellanos, who wrote while many of these ad- 
venturers were living, and who had received 
from them directly an account of their 
privations and sufferings and the countless 
obstacles that at times rendered progress 
almost impossible, their journeys were 
made through mountains and districts that 

- 'Ours be his gold and his pleasures, 
Let us enjoy that land, that sun.' 

241 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

were inaccessible and uninhabitable, through 
gloomy forests and dense, tangled under- 
brush; through inhospitable lands and dis- 
mal swamps, where there was neither food 
nor shelter for man or beast. 

"This extraordinary and accidental meet- 
ing of the three Conquistadores, coming 
from such great distances, from three differ- 
ent points of the compass, is one of the most 
interesting episodes in the history of the 
Conquest. It was a critical moment for the 
Europeans. If they had failed to agree, and 
had turned their arms against one another, 
those who would have escaped alive would 
have been at the mercy of the Indians who 
would at once have rallied their forces to 
repel the invaders. But, fortunately, wise 
councils prevailed and a clash was averted. 

" 'While the clergy and the religious,' 

writes Acosta, 'were going to and from the 

different camps endeavoring to prevent a 

rupture, the three parties of Spaniards, com- 

242 



APPENDIX 

ing from points so distant, and now occupy- 
ing the three apices of a triangle, whose 
sides measured three or four leagues, pre- 
sented a singular spectacle. Those from 
Peru were clad in scarlet cloth and silk and 
wore steel helmets and costly plumes. Those 
from Santa Marta had cloaks, linens and 
caps made by the Indians. Those, however, 
from Venezuela, like refugees from Robin- 
son Crusoe's island, were covered with the 
skins of bears, leopards, tigers and deer. 
Having journeyed more than thirteen hun- 
dred leagues through uninhabited lands, 
they had experienced the most cruel hard- 
ships. They arrived poor, naked and re- 
duced to one-fourth of their original number. 
" 'The three chiefs,' continues Acosta, 
'were among the most distinguished men 
that ever came to America. Belalcazar, son 
of a woodman of Extremadura, attained by 
his talents and valor the reputation of being 
one of the most celebrated Conquistadores 
243 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

of South America and was endowed in a 
degree far above the other two with poHti- 
cal tact and observing genius. As soon as 
he became aware of the agreement entered 
into between Quesada and Federmann, he 
nobly waived his rights, and declined to ac- 
cept the sum which Quesada offered him. 
He stipulated only that his soldiers should 
not be prevented from returning to Peru, 
when they might desire to do so, or when 
Pizarro should demand them, and that Cap- 
tain Juan Cabrera should return to found a 
town in Neiva, a territory which, along with 
Timana, was to be under the government of 
Popayan, which it was his intention to solicit 
from the Emperor. In the meantime he 
agreed to accompany Quesada to Spain.' 

"The three went to Spain together, as had 
been arranged, each of them confident of 
receiving from the Spanish monarch a re- 
ward commensurate with his labors and serv- 
ices to the Crown. Each one aspired to the 
244 



APPENDIX 

governorship of new Granada and used all 
his influenee to secure the coveted prize. 

"The net result of their efforts was a sad 
experience of the vanity of human wishes. 
All were disappointed in their expectations. 
The guerdon all so eagerly strove for was 
awarded to another who had taken no part 
in the conquest that had rendered the three 
aspirants to royal favor so famous. 

"Only Belalcazar received any recogni- 
tion whatever. He was made adelantado of 
Popayan and the surrounding territory. As 
for Quesada and Federmann they fell into 
disfavor. The latter soon disappeared from 
public view entirely, but long afterwards 
Quesada was able to return to the land 
where he had won so many laurels. And it 
was fitting that, after his death, his remains 
should repose in the noble cathedral that 
adorns the capital of which he was the 
founder. 

"In adventure and achievement, the three 
245 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

Conquistadores above mentioned take rank 
with Cortes, Pizarro and Orellana. Given 
a Homer, their wanderings and deeds would 
afford themes for three Odysseys of intense 
and abiding interest. Given even an Er- 
cilla, we should have a literary monument, 
which, in romantic episode and dramatic 
effect, would eclipse the Araucana, the near- 
est approach to an epic that South America 
has yet produced." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

List of the more important works cited in this 
volume. 
AcosTA, JoAQuix. Compendio Historico del Des- 

cubrimiento y Colonization de la Nueva Gran- 
ada. Bogata (1901). 
Bry, Theodor de. Collectiones Perigrinationum 

in Indiam Orientalem et Occidentalem. Franco- 

furti ad Moenum (1590-1631^). 
Carvajae, Fr. Gaspar. Descubrimiento del Rio 

de las Amazonas segun la Relacion hasta ahora 

Inedita de Fr. Gaspar Carvajal, por Toribio 

Medina. Sevilla (1894). 
Casteelanos, Juan de. Elejias de Varones 

Ilustres de Indias. Madrid (1850). 
Castellanos, Juan de. Historia del Nuevo 

Reino de Granada, publicada por primera vez 

por D. Antonio Paz y Melia. Madrid (1886). 
Centenera, Martin del Barco. La Argentina. 

Buenos Aires (1836). 
Colijn, Michel. Nievvve vverelt. Amsterdam 

(1622). 
Cruz, Fr. Laureano de la. Nuevo Descubri- 

247 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

miento del Rio del Maraiion Llamado de las 
Amazonas. Madrid (1900). 

Edwards, Edward. The Life of Sir Walter 
Raleigh. London (1868). 

Fresle, Juan Rodriguez. Conquista i Descub- 
rimiento de Granada de las Indias Occidentales 
del Mar Oceano i Fundacion de la Ciudad de 
Santa Fe de Bogata. Bogota (1859). 

GoMARA, Francisco Lopez de. Historia de las 
Indias. Madrid (1877). 

Gottfriedt, Johan Ludwig. Newe Welt vnd 
Americanische Historien. Francfurt am 
Meyn (1622). 

GuMiLLA, JosE. Historia Natural, Civil y 
Geografica de las Naciones Situadas en las 
Riveras del Rio Orinoco. Barcelona (1882). 

Humbert, Jules. L'Occupation Allemande du 
Yenesuela au XVI Siecle. Paris (1905). 

Herrera, Antonio de. Historia General de los 
Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra 
Firme del Mar Oceano. Madrid (1726-1730). 

Humboldt, Alexander von. Personal Narra- 
tive of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of 
America. London (1907). 

Ortiguera, Toribio de. Jornada del Rio Mara- 
non. Madrid (1909). 

OviEDO Y Bangs, Jose de. Historia de la Con- 

248 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

quista y Poblacion de la Provincia de Vene- 
zuela. Madrid (1885). 

OviEDo Y Valdes, Gonzalo Fernando de. His- 
toria General y Natural de las Indias, Islas y 
Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano. Madrid 
(1851-1855). 

PiEDRAHiTA, LucAs Fernandez. Historia Gen- 
eral de las Conquistas del Nuevo Reino de 
Granada. Bogata (1881). 

Raleigh, Sir Walter. The Discovery of the 
Large, Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guiana 
with a Relation of the Great and Golden City 
of Manoa, which the Spaniards call El Dorado, 
etc., performed in the year 1595. Pub. by the 
Hakluyt Society, London (1848). 

Salinas, Diego de Cordova. Cronica de la re- 
ligiosisima provincia de los Doce Aposteles del 
Peru de la Orden de N. P. S. Francisco de la 
regular observancia. Lima (1651). 

Simon, Fray Pedro. Noticias Historiales de las 
Conquistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias Occi- 
dentales. Bogota (1882-1892). 

SouTHEY, Robert. History of Brazil. London 
(1822). 

Treves, Frederick. The Cradle of the Deep. 
London (1908). 

Vasquez, Bachiller Francisco. Relacion de 

249 



THE QUEST OF EL DORADO 

todo lo que Sucedio en la Jornada de Omagua 
y Dorado Hecha por el Gobernador Pedro de 
Orsua. Madrid (1881). 
Vega, Garcilaso de la. Historia General del 

Peru. Madrid (1722). 
Zahm, J. A. (H. J. MozANs). Up the Orinoco 
and Down the Magdalena. New York 
(1910). 

Along the Andes and Down the Amazon. 
New York (1911). 

Through South America's Southland. 
New York (1916). 
Zakate, Augustin de. Historia del Descubri- 
miento y Conquista de la Provincia del Peru. 
Madrid (1906). 
Zerda, Liborio. El Dorado, Estudio Historico 
Etnografico y Arqueologico de los Chibchas 
Habitantes de la Antigua Cundinamarca. Bo- 
gata (1883). 



INDEX 



Africa^ gold in^ 220 

Aguirre, Lope de^ 76, 79, 
202 

Alaric the Gotli^ treasure 
of, 223 

Alaska, gold in, 220 

Albujar, Juan Martin de, 
86 

Alfinger, Ambrose, 56 

Amazon River, discovery 
of, 43, 48 
Dorado, search on, 202 
passage of Aguirre on, 
76, 79 

Andes, mountains. Dora- 
do search in the, 
38, 202 
Pizarro expedition in 
the, 38 

Ants as food, 60 

Archives of Spain and 
Peru, 3 

Asia Minor, buried treas- 
ure in, 226, 227 

251 



Atahualpa, 9^ 37 

Attila the Hun, treasure 
of, 223 

Aztec treasures, discov- 
ery of, 31, 218 

Balboa, 218 

Belalcazar, Sebastian de, 
2, 9, 14, 35, 202, 
213, 243, 244 
in Bogota, 21, 32 
meeting with Quesada, 
17, 32, 235, 240 
Bembo, card., letter to, 26 
Berrio, Antonio de, 2, 109 
captured by Raleigh, 

155, 156 
expedition under, 114, 
202 
Blaeuw, maps of, 193 
Bogota, Dorado search 
in, 13, 17, 21, 25, 
32 
Quesada in, 59, 237 



INDEX 



Books, list of, 247, 250 
Brieva, Domingo de, 
Fray, 134, 137 

Cabrera, Juan, 244 
California, gold in, 220 
Canela, Dorado search in, 

26, 27, 52, 202 
Indian customs in, 27- 

29 
Pizarro in, 26, 27, 202 
Quesada in, 52 
Carib Indians, 85, 131 
Carvajal, Gaspar de, 5, 

49 
Casa del Sol, 6 
Castellanos, Juan de, 4 

18, 21, 90, 9S, 

105 
Cecil, Sir Robert, 146 
Centenera, Martin del 

Barco, 198 
Chachapoyas, expedition 

from, 79 
Chaves, Nuflo de, expedi- 
tion under, 138, 

139 
Chibchas, conquest of, 

236, 238 



Chibchas, treasure of, 31, 
239 

Chigoe, 133 

Children of the Sun, 197, 
213 

Cinnamon, land of, 26, 
27, S6, 48 

Civilization of South 
America, 232 

Claflin, Donald, legend 
of, 227 

Cocos island, buried 
treasure at, 224 

Colombia, Dorado search 
in, 52 

Conquistadores, explora- 
tions of, 7, 8, 202- 
204, 213, 229 
Spanish accounts of, 
144 

Coro, expedition organ- 
ized from, 55, 56 

Cortes, 213 

Courage of Pizarro expe- 
dition, 47, 48 

Croesus, King, treasure 
of, 225, 226 

Cundinamarca, Belalca- 
zar in, 25, 202 



252 



INDEX 



Cundinamarca, Dorado, 
search in, 25, 32, 
35, 202 

Cuzco, treasures of, 218 

De Bry, location of Ma- 
noa by, 193 

De Saet, map by, 193 

Depons, map of, 19^ 

Desert, marches of Span- 
iards through, 84- 

De Vera, Domingo, 121, 
122 
expedition under, 12C, 
127 

Disease outbreaks on Do- 
rado expeditions, 
60, 63, 85, 97, 98, 
101, 103, 104, 131 

Don Juan, cacique of 
Guatavita, 1 3 

Earthquakes, 41 

East Indies, treasure in, 

204 
EI Dorado, accounts of, 

3-7, 17-21,26, 144 
advantages of conquest 

of, 185 



El Dorado, belief in, 190, 

201, 217 
failures to find, 49, 59. 

102, 105, 106, 

133, 137, 176, 

204, 207 
Indian reports of, 9, 

17, 28-32, 57, 120, 

209, 216, 217 
location of, 25, 32, 35, 

36, 70, 71, 110, 

113, 120 
map location of, 193, 

194 
of Parime, 208 
origin of, 13, 14, 25, 26 
popularity of search 

for, 81, 82, 85, 93, 

122, 125, 126, 

146, 222 
results of search for, 

229 
search for, 1, 2, 4, 202- 

204 
Welser expeditions to, 

55, 56, 57 
"Elegias de Varones 

Ilustres de In- 

dias," 4, 10 



253 



INDEX 



English attack on Span- 
iards, 152, 155 
English expeditions, ob- 
jects of, 140-1 -15 
Enim, 197 

Explorations of Aguirre, 
76, 79 
Belalcazar, 25, 26, 32- 

SQ 
Berrio, 11 6, 119 
of the Maraiiones, 76, 

79 
Pizarro, 38-47 
Quesada, 52, 55 
Spanish conquistado- 
res, 2, 7, 8, 204, 
213, 229 
Von Hutten, 57, 59, QS, 
64 

Federmann, Nicolas, 6, 
17, 32, 238, 239 
meeting with Quesada, 

235 
settlement of claims of, 
239, 240 
Financial loss of Quesa- 
da expedition, 
104 



Financial support to De 
Vera expedition, 
122, 125, 126 
of Silva expedition, 82 

Food shortage of Berrio 
expedition, 131 
of Pizarro expedition, 

41, 42, 44, 45 
of Quesada expedi- 
tions, 52, 97 
of Von Hutten expedi- 
tion, 60 

Forest jungle, marches 
through, 41, 52, 
58, 202, 237 

Fortune-seekers, 219-221 

Franciscan Lay Broth- 
ers, voyage of, 
134, 137, 138 

Fresle, Juan Rodriquez, 
13, 17, 21 

Genseric the Vandal, 
treasure of, 223 

German Dorado expedi- 
tions, 55, 5Q, 238, 
239 

Gilded Cacique, 27, 28, 
29 



254 



INDEX 



Gilded King, accounts of, 
3-7, 17-21,26, 144 

belief in, 190, 201, 
217 

Indian reports of, 9, 
17, 28-32, 57, 120, 
209, 216, 217 

location of, 25, 32, 35, 
36, 70, 71, 110, 



results of search for, 

229 
search for, 1, 2, 4, 202- 
204 
Gold in Alaska, 220 
in California, 220 
in Guiana, 173, 174 
in Manoa, l66, 169 
search for, 6, 21, 22, 
56,219, 220, 228 
Gomara, 48 
Gran Moxo, 197 

empire of, 198, 199 
people of, 200 
Gran Quivira, 2r7 
Great Paru, 197 
Great Paytiti, 197, 217 
Guatavita, lake, drainage 
of, 22 

255 



Guatavita, lake, Indian 
ceremony at, 13, 
14, 22, 25 
treasure in, 21, 223 
Guiana, advantages of 
conquest of, 185 
failure of English con- 
quest of, 186, 189 
Raleigh's chart of, 

173, 190 
treasure accounts of, 
146, 165, 180, 183 
Gumilla, 25 



Hardships of Belalcazar 
expedition, 241, 
242 

of Berrio expedition, 
116 

of Pizarro expedition, 
38, 41, 44-47 

of Quesada expedi- 
tions, 52, 55, 58, 
59, 97-104, 237, 
238 

of Silva expedition, 83, 
84, 85, 86 

of Von Hutten expedi- 
tion, 58, 60, 63 



IXDEX 



Herrera. Alonzo de. SO, 

"Historia del Niievo Rei- 
no de Granada." 
4. 105 

Hohermuth. George. 5(3. 
Sp 

House of the Sun. 235 

Humboldt, IS, '21, 193 

Imaginary empire in 
South American 
forest, ip:. 207 
Incas, flight of the. 207,. 
215, 217 

treasure of the. 31. 
207, 210, 215, 
217, 218, 223 

empire, discovery of. 
31, 210, 218 
Indian empires in South 
America, 31, 210, 
213, 214, 21s 

friendship for English, 
155, 156 

hostility to explorers 
52, 65, 66, 73, 85 
101, 103, 116 
131. 132. 202 



Indian races, records of 
extinct. 233 

population on Amazon. 
73, 74 

reports on Manoa. l65 

reports of El Dorado, 
9. 17. 28-32, 57, 
120, 209, 216, 
217 

reports on South Amer- 
ican empires, 31, 
218 

purpose of. 21 6. 217 
Insect diet in tropics, 

60 
Insects, poisonous, 133 

La Fragua, 58 

La Lutrine. treasure sunk 

with. 224. 225 
Limpias. Pedro de, 56, 66 

Macatoa, city of, 59, 63 
Machiparo, Indian popu- 
lation of. 73, 74 
search for Dorado in, 
73, 74 
Manoa, accounts of, 2, 
144. 166. 169. 214 



\o6 



IXDEX 



Manoa. Indian reports 
of, 116, 119-121 
search for, 11 6, 119, 

121, 156, 159 
maps locating. 190.. 
193, 19^ 

Map locations of El Do- 
rado, 190, 193, 
194 

Mar Eldorado. 1Q3 

Maranones, explorations 
of the, 76- 79 

Martines. Juan, account 
of Manoa, l65, 
166, 169 

M e d r a n o . Francisco, 
death of, 104, 105 

Mexico, discovery of, 
218 
treasure in, 31, 204 

Montezuma, empire of, 
213, 218 

Motives of Raleigh expe- 
dition, 143-145 

Muiscas. 4, -20 3, -214 
treasure of the, 223 

Mutineers in L rsua expe- 
dition, 75, 76, 
79 

•7 



Xew Estremadara, expe- 
dition to, 81, 82, 
83 

Xew Granada, Dorado 
search in. 17, 202 

"Xoticias Historiales," 3 

Xuestra Senora, 58 

Omaguas, 2, 50, 203 
batJe wiLh the, 65, 66 
city of, 64, 60, 69r TO 
land of, search for Do- 
rado in, 64, 70, 71, 
72, 81 
treasure of the, 64, 65 
Ordaz, Diego de, 6, 89 
Crellana, Francisco de, 2, 

43, 44, 202, 213 
Crinoco. Berrio expedi- 
tion up, 12 s, 131 
Raleigh expedition up, 

159-164 
delta, navigation of, 
160. 163 
Oviedo V Valdes. Gonza- 
lo F., 26. 27 

Papamene, arrival of 
Quesada in, 59 



0/ 



INDEX 



Parime, lake, igo, 214. 

Peru, treasure in, 31, 
204 

Piedrahita, Lucas, 18, 21, 
35 

Pizarro, Francisco, 9:; 
197, 213* 

Pizarro, Gonzalo, 2, 26, 
202 
expedition under, 37, 

38 
results of expedition 

under, 48, 49 

return of expedition 

under, 44-47 

Popajan, arrival of Que- 
sada in, 59 
Belalcazar made gov- 
ernor of, 245 

Popularity of Dorado 
quest, 81, 82, 85, 
93, 122, 125, 126, 
146 

Prairie fires, 97 

Privateering of Raleigh 
expedition, 147 

Proveda, Martin de, ex- 
pedition under, 
79-81, 202 



Quarica, palace of, 64, 65 

Quesada, Ximenes de, 2, 
4, 13, 17, 32 
expedition under, 90, 

93, 202, 213 
meeting with Belalca- 
zar, 235, 239, 241 

Quesada, Fernan Perez 
de, expedition un- 
der, 51, 52, 202, 
213 

Quito, Pizarro expedition 
in, 46, 47 

Rainy season in South 
America, 41, 45, 
46, 52, 58, 60, 97, 
98, 101, 127 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 2 
expedition under, 140 
imprisonment of, 183 
return to England of, 

176, 179 
second expedition un- 
der, 183-189 
Reading list on South 
America, 247-250 
Reptile diet of Pizarro 
exjjcdition, 45 



258 



INDEX 



Salt, effect of lack of, 46, 
98 

San Jose de Oruno, 119j, 
127 

San Joseph, capture of. 
152, 155 

San Juan de los Llanos, 
58, 80, 94 

San Pedro, construction 
of, 42, 43 

Sanson, map of, 193 

Santo Tome de Guiana, 
foundation o f , 
119. 128 

Sedeno, Antonio, 6 

Sardis, buried treasure 
in, 225, 226 

Scotland, treasure ship 
sunk off, 224 

Ship building on Ama- 
zon, 42, 43 

Siecha, lake, treasure in, 
25 (note) 

Silva, Pedro de, expedi- 
tion under, 8 1 , 
82, 83, 85, 86, 
202 

Simon, Pedro, 3, 18, 21 

Solis, Antonio, 208 



South America, Spanish 
exploration of, 2, 
7, 8,204, 213, 229 

South Sea, discovery of, 
218 

Spanish Bibliophiles, so- 
ciety of, 5 

Spanish exploration in 
South America, 2, 
7, 8, 204, 213,229 

Spanish plate fleet, 225 

Street of the Silver- 
smiths, 198 

Surville, map of, 193 

Swamps, marches 
through, 84 

Territory claimed by 
Quesada, 87-89 
by three explorers, 
239-241 
Texeria, Pedro, 137 
Toledo, Fray, Andres de 

137 
Treasure, discovery of 
lost, 222, 223 
in Asia Minor, 226, 227 
in Lake Guatavita, 21, 
22. 223 



9 



INDEX 



Treasure^ in Lake Urcos^ 

223 
in Mexico and Peru^ 

31, 204> 
Indian reports of^ [), 

17, 29, 31, 57, 59, 

64, 65, 69, 89, 

114, 115 
of Alaric the Goth, 223 
of Attila, the Hun, 223 
of Cuzco, 218 
of Genseric the Van- 
dal, 223 
of Gran Moxo, 197- 

199 
of the Incas, 31, 207, 

210, 215, 217, 

218,' 223 
of the Muiscas, 223 
of the Omaguas, 64, 

65 
of Sardis, 225, 226, 

227 
Welser expeditions in 

search of, 55, 56, 

238, 239 
Treasure ships, search 

for sunken, 223, 

224, 225 



Trinidad, arrival of Ra- 
leigh in, 147, 148 
privations in, 127, 128 
medical practice in, 
132, 133 

Uapes Indians, 63, 80 
Urcos, lake, treasure in, 

223 
Ursua, Pedro de, 2, 202 
death of, 74, 75 
expedition under, 72 

Vaca, Cabeza de, 198 
Vasquez, Francisco, 5, 75 
Vega, Garcillaso de la, 45 
Venezuela, expedition or- 
ganized in, 55 

Dorado search in, 202 
Von Hutten, Philip, 2, 
89, 202, 213 

death of, 66 

expedition under, 55 

Wealth, acquisition of, 
219, 220, 221 

Welser expeditions in 
search of treas- 
ure, 55, 56, 238 



260 



IXDEX 



Western passage to In- 
dies^ 144 

Whiddon, mission of, 
148 

Wliite Sea of the ■\Ianoas, 
194 

Wilderness, Dorado 
search in, 84, 202, 
203 



Women in Dorado expe- 
dition, 94, 127 

Yellow fever, 132 
Yukon, gold in, 220 

Zarate, 37;, 45 
Zuj^der Zee, treasure ship 
sunk in, 224 



(l) 



FOLLOWING THE GONQUISTADORES 
Through South America's Southland 

By J. A. Zahm, a. M., Ph. D. (H. J. Mozans). With 
65 illustrations. 8vo._, cloth, gilt top, uncut edges, 
$3.75 net. 

"We regard Dr. Zahm's three volumes as the most valuable con- 
tribution which has been made to a history of the South American 
republics."— T/j-e Catholic Historical Review, Washington, D. C. 

"The three volumes constitute a trilogy in which the salient and 
most interesting features of South America — the land and the people 
— are portrayed. It is hardly necessary to say that the worli as a 
whole is unique. It stands quite by itself, having no peer, no equal 
in the class of literature to which it belongs." — Records of the Ameri- 
can Catholic Historical Society^ Philadelphia, Pa. 

"By establishing sympathetic relations between the United States 
and the South American Republics, Father Zahm's book is a notable 
achievement."— La Union, Santiago, Chile. 

"No one knows South America better than Dr. Zahm, and no 
one is better equipped to write about the southern continent." — 
The Christian Work. 

"Original in material, enriched with historical and romantic as- 
sociations of the Conquistadores, fairly studded with marvels and 
anecdotes taken probably from the unpublished manuscripts of 
Jesuit pioneers, Dr. Zahm's work has unique value as a contribution 
to the as yet largely unwritten history of South America." — The 
Literary Digest, New York City. 

"Dr. Zahm writes with a zest that is contagious. All the readers 
of his book will want to travel in his footsteps." — The New York 
World. 

"A book of extraordinary interest by one who knows his subject 
thoroughly."— r/ie Independent, New York City. 

"Dwelling on the history, the romance, and the present-day- 
status of Brazil, the Argentine, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, it is 
a vivid picture of the 'A. B. C countries brought well up to date, 
and including just the detail that is calculated to interest Americans, 
particularly at the present time." — The Revieiv of Revieics, New Y'^ork 
City. 

"Father Zahm writes with a background of historical knowledge 
and a wealth of picturesque detail. His very evident enjoyment of 
the trip is contagious; his vivid descriptions give you pictures of 
this extravagantly beautiful new land wliicli he tells about, and fill 
you with a desire to visit it yourself." — The Kansas City Star. 

"It is a study in new century political economics and new world 
exploitation, as Avell as a bright and buoyant narrative of a 10,000 
mile tropical journey." — The Xorth Auierican, Philadelphia. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 



FOLLOWING THE GONQUISTADORES 

Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena 

By H. J. MozANs, A.M., Ph.D. (J. A. Zahm.) 
Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut edges. Price 
$3.75 net. 

"His pages breathe the poetry of travel, the romance of Sir 
John Mandeville, tempered by the moderation of scientific research. 
This is a very model of a travel book, and the author is to be 
congratulated on a result that will insure a wide public for the 
promised sequel." — The Worlds London, England. 

"The book is beyond question the most valuable of all the 
books on South America which has appeared. It is as interesting 
as a novel, full of entertaining anecdote and of real value to 
the student. It contains some maps and excellent illustrations from 
photographs." — The Call, San Francisco, Cal. 

"This is a remarkably interesting book, leading us through a 
region little known to the majority of English travelers, and 
possessing, in consequence, that charm of novelty in which works 
of the same description are occasionally deficient." — The Standard, 
London, England. 

"The reader will find this trip with the author, "Up the 
Orinoco and Down the Magdalena," as agreeable and instructive 
as a personally conducted visit to the heart of the Andes." — 
Evening Transcript, Boston, Mass. 

"This volume, remarkable alike for its instructive qualities 
and the excellent composition, will open a vista of delight to 
the reader who relishes travel." — The News, Charleston, S. C. 

"Dr. Mozans sees the country with the trained and experienced 
eye of a world traveler and with" the well stocked mind of the 
lover of literature. The past is linked with the present, the 
unknown with the known, and poetically appreciated in a way 
that is most delightful." — The Trihxme, Chicago, 111. 

"The author, a traveler of many years of experience, who 
has explored strange corners of the globe in every zone, com- 
bines with accurate observation and a facile power of description 
a knowledge of history that enables him to illuminate his work 
with something of the romance that attaches to the tales of the 
conquistadores in whose trail he followed on this journey. The 
resulting book is one that gives the reader a completely new set of 
impressions and ideas concerning Venezuela and Colombia and the 
great rivers that water these still unsettled lands." — The Times Star, 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 

"Not since the appearance of Humboldt's ^'Personal Narrative 
of Travels in the Equinoctial Regions of America" has the fertile 
and romantic region of Tierra Firma — the scene of the exploits 
of some of this most illustrious of the Conquistadores — been so 
fully and so vividly described as by Doctor Mozans in his in- 
structive and fascinating volume '-TJv the Orinoco and Down the 
Magdalena." — Bulletin of the Pan-American Union. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 



FOLLOWING THE GONQUISTADORES 



Along the Andes and Down the Amazon 

By H. J. MozANS, A.M., Ph.D. With an Intro- 
duction by Theodore Roosevelt. Ilkistrated. 
8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut edges. Price $3.75 net. 



"It was a great project and a grand journey, but we do not 
recall any writer who could describe it so delightfully as Dr. Mozans. 
He has not only an irresistible literary charm, but he is so saturated 
with knowledge of what he writes about that all he writes has an 
irresistible interest." — The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland. 

"Readers of Dr. Mozans' book have been impressed by the 
remarkable, almost amazing, erudition shown in it. It has also a 
modernity that is unusual in scholarly persons. Dr. Mozans 
seems to have been everywhere and studied everything. His 
especial interest in life has been thoroughly to acquaint himself 
with the history, antiquities and people, past and present, of 
northern South America." — The Literary Digest, New York City. 

"Dr. Mozans writes English after our own style, and has a 
point of view half philosophical and half poetic. He is highly 
sensitive to the mystery of the dead civilizations of the Andean 
plateaux, as well as to the abounding life of the modern States, 
and the book generally is the pleasantest account of South America 
we have encountered for a considerable time." — The Standard, 
London, England. 

"To read his book is not only to travel with him to strange 
places but also to be steeped in good literature." — The Record- 
Herald, Chicago, 111. 

"Great learning is often allied with great simplicity. It is so 
in the case of Dr. Mozans. He is bubbling over with information 
about the achievements of the Spanish conquistadores and the 
subsequent history of the lands over which they established their 
sway." — The Field, London, England. 

"Whether Dr. Mozans' volume is resorted to for solid in- 
formation or mere entertainment it will well repay the reading." — 
The New York Times. 

"A book which every traveler to South America, especially 
every traveler to the west coast of the continent, will wish to 
have in his handbag." — Bulletin of the Pan-American Union. 

"This is a delightful book from every standpoint." — Ex-Pres- 
ident Roosevelt, in the Introduction to Dr. Mozans' book. 

"Like the well-known works of Waterton and Humboldt on 
South America, the two books by Dr. Mozans are sure to have a 
permanent value and to be recognized as soon as known, as 
authorities on the countless subjects discussed in their illuminating 
pages with such fairness and scholarship." — The Freeman's Journal, 
New York City. 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW /ORK 



A TIMELY VOLUME OF UNUSUAL INTEREST 

Woman in Science 

By H. J. MozANS, A. M., Ph. D., Frontispiece, 8vo, 
cloth. Price $2.75 net. 

"A historical survey of the higher education of women that is 
almost monumental in design. . . . The conclusion of the admir- 
able survey is inspiring for its breadth and idealism." 

— The Re'vieiv of Revieivs, New York City. 

"All who are interested in the progress and advancement of 
women will be inspired by this exhaustive treatment by Dr. 
^^ozans." __j.j^^ Literary Digest, New York City. 

"Dr. H. J. Mozans's present volume, 'Women in Science,' is assur- 
edly no labor of the market. Its pages are the outcome of long 
days at the University of Athens, of months at Bologna, Padua and 
Pavia, of years of delving into the recorded lives of the great 
women of civilization. . . . But he closes his scholarly and most 
courteous volume with a freshened hope." 

— The Times, New York City. 

"The book marks an epoch in the struggle of women for recog- 
nition in the educational world and is worthy of a place in the library 
of every cultivated man and Avoman in the land." 

— The Evening Telegram, Portland, Oregon. 

"It is a much more refreshing story than the story of the militant 
struggle to vote. It wakens not mere sympathy but deep respect." 
— The Knickerbocker Press, Albany, N. Y. 

"The present book is emphatically timely, dealing as it does with 
the right of woman to the opportunity to develop her life precisely as 
the man has the right to develop his. . . . This book is a store- 
house of facts and arguments for all who in this struggle take the 
side of reason and justice." _jj^^ Outlook, New York City. 

"Writers and orators who deal with feminism in its chameleonic 
aspects will want to read Dr. H. J. Mozans's 'Woman in Science.' " 
— The Public Ledger, Philadelphia, Penna. 

"After outlining woman's capacity for scientific pursuits, the 
book takes up, step by step, her achievements in all the departments 
of pure science from the earliest times to the present. An inspira- 
tion for those interested in tlie cause of women."' 

• — Current Opinion, New York City. 

"For those directly interested in the cause of woman it is a foun- 
tain of inspiration." __j.j^^ Constitution, Atlanta, Ga. 

"The book will be especially valuable to those who are directly 
interested in the 'Cause of Woman,' and who Avish argumentative 
ammunition for the fray." _^^^ p^^^ Dispatch, St. Paul Pioneer Press. 

"He has written a wonderful book which every woman who under- 
takes to forward the feminist cause should read. . . . The book 
Dr. Mozans has Avritten about them has the romantic interest of a 
novel and the inspiration of a battle hymn!" 

— The Journal, Madison, Wisconsin. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 



BY THE AUTHOR OF "WOMAN IN SCIENCE" 

Great Inspirers 

By J. A. Zahm, Ph.D., LL.D. (H. J. Mozans). 

8vo. Cloth, $1.50 Net. 

"A book which holds the reader spellbound from the first page 
to the last, both by its style and by its treatment of its engaging 
subjects. . . It is a volume of rare delights of which it would 
be ungrateful to speak without enthusiasm." — New York Tribune. 

"The eternal womanly is the keynote of this able work and the 
author writes with brilliant literary style and the finished tech- 
nique of the real scholar." — The Buffalo Courier. 

"An inspiring book, companionable, full of spirituality and 
comprehension of human nature." — Fresno, Cah, Repuhlican. 

"Dr. Zahra's book on every page indicates historical, theological 
and literary scholarship of the first class. It is thoroughly human 
and readable." — The Outlook. 

"A fine book and most interesting." — Baltimore Sun. 

"A tribute to womanhood." — Philadelphia Public Ledger. 

"As essay, history or criticism, the book is of decided value." — ■ 
The Continent. 

"It will be read with interest on account of its subject matter, 
and with pleasure on account of its style." — Ave Maria. 

"The book is very interesting." — Catholic World. 

"Dr. Zahm's eminence as a Dante commentator makes the sec- 
ond part specially valuable." — New York Evening Post. 

"History and legend, modern research and venerable tradition 
. .^ . . are finely combined in these twin sketches of great 
events in literature — the production of the Latin Vulgate Old 
Testament befoie the DarV Ages, and the creation of the immor- 
tal allegory of the hereafter at the dawn of the Renaissance." — 
The Philadelphia North American. 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 






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